If we were to select the European shipbuilding champion in Napoleon's era, the French would definitely surpass the British. From 1802, when the Treaty of Amiens was signed, to 1805, in just three years, the naval ministers of the First French Empire had done their best to crazily supervise the construction of 168 warships of various types, nearly two-thirds of which were battleships.

Even after the defeat in the Battle of Trafalgar, the Imperial Navy's shipbuilding plan did not stop. Another three years passed, thanks to the blood-drained solid allies, the "selfless aid" of the Kingdom of Spain. By the spring of 1808, the French fleet had recovered to 80% of the level in 1805. Among them, one-third of the French Navy and more than 40 warships were still stationed in the Cadiz military port on the southern coast of Spain and the Ferroy military port on the northwest corner of Spain.

The resurgence of the French navy caused the British on the other side of the strait to panic. In order to inspire the morale of the army, the British cabinet led by the Duke of Portland at that time, Percival (the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who served as British Prime Minister in 1809) issued a dizzying fiscal budget. The war expenditure was as high as 49 million pounds. Half of the funds involved in the budget required the British government to borrow from outside. It included in instigation of Prussia, Austria, and Russia to form alliances, fight against the French emperor, another Battle of Ottris, and sending British expeditionary forces to the Iberis Peninsula to open a second battlefield in traditional allies and the Kingdom of Portugal, etc.

In 1808, when the Barongna conspiracy was realized, the former Spanish king Pedinan VII announced his abdication, and the emperor's eldest brother, Joseph, was awarded the throne of Spain. However, Napoleon was too proud and forgot to convey such important news to the French overseas fleet in time.

The French squadron stationed at the Ferroy Military Port was obviously more informative. After all, it was only more than 200 nautical miles away from the French border town. After learning from French merchant ships that the emperor had ordered the annexation of Spain, the squadron commander decisively led more than 20 warships to set sail, leaving the former allies and today's mortal enemy, Spain's Ferroy Military Port unscathed, broke through the British fleet blockade and safely returned to France in the port of Brest in the English Channel.

The French squadron located in the Cadiz military port, more than 10,000 sailors on 21 warships were not so lucky. In March 1808, insurrections broke out across Spain to resist the French-army invasion. At the request of the general public, in early May, the Cadiz City Hall announced the cutting off the food and freshwater supply to the French squadron. The British Mediterranean Fleet outside the port also heard the news and strengthened the sea blockade, leaving the French navy with no way to escape and completely fell into a dead end.

After more than 20 days of hesitation and confusion, the commander of the French squadron at the Cadiz military port was dizzy and ordered the surrender of the Cadiz City Hall, which was swept by public opinion, instead of the old rival outside the port, the British Mediterranean Fleet. Soon, when the news of the Madrid uprising being brutally massacred by the French army reached Cadiz, 10,000 captured French sailors immediately became the target of revenge for the Spanish people. Within two days, more than 6,000 French sailors were subjected to organized massacre. In the end, the commander of the British fleet could not bear it and made suggestions to the Cadiz City Hall as a new allies, and took the initiative to collect the remaining 4,000 French prisoners of war.

Soon, these 4,000 French naval prisoners were taken to the Gibraltar colony by the British Mediterranean fleet and served as labor service. According to the original historical trajectory, when the Napoleon era was completely over in 1815, these French sailors who escaped by chance were not redeemed by the French motherland. Therefore, most of them chose to be loyal to King George III of the British and became British nationality, and only 200 people were willing to return to France. The above history was long sealed in the archives of France, Western and British countries, and was not published to the public until the 21st century.

After the arrival of the traverser, the fate of the 4,000 French captured sailors changed. In October, Colonel Rusty, the plenipotentiary of the Grand Duke of Hruna, proposed to purchase another 40 French ships captured by Britain (including merchant ships) in a new round of negotiations with the British Mediterranean Fleet. The former warships would be transformed into ordinary merchant ships and pay the fee to contribute to the political donation of the British cabinet to the Dominion of Hruna.

Similarly, considering the serious lack of sailors in the fleet, Colonel Rusty hopes that the Governor of Gibraltar can release the 4,000 French sailors and guarantee that these 4,000 French sailors (army) will not be used in military operations against the British Mediterranean Fleet.

At this time, the Governor of Gibraltar was worried about how to get rid of the 4,000 French prisoners of war and reduce the pressure on food and freshwater in the Gibraltar colony. Without much hesitation, the Governor of the British agreed to the request and allowed the Dominion of Hruna to redeem 4,000 French sailors at a low price of 10 riyals per person (equivalent to 2 francs).

The three-masted merchant ship "Seeker" that the Duke of Desay is now on is originally a third-class battleship in the French naval sequence. It was captured at the port of Cadiz in 1808. The British Navy likes to capture warships from France and Spain, but does not like to use them. For more than a year, the "Seeker" has been sealed in the British naval base in Gibraltar.

The keel and shipbuilding wood of the "Searcher" mainly come from the original forests along the Baltic Sea coast. It has three-layer gun decks (the gun cabins are now transformed into cargo cabins), 78 artillery pieces (only less than 20 are allowed to be retained to defend against offshore pirates), a capacity of about 500 people (mainly cargo, with a small number of people carrying people), a displacement of 1,600 tons, and a maximum navigation speed of more than 12 knots per hour.

The straight sea voyage from Barcelona to Marseille is 190 nautical miles, about 352 kilometers. With the wind and the ocean current, the "Seeker" pulls up all 22 sails, with an average speed of 9-10 knots, and can arrive at the Marseille Freeport after 20 hours, that is, at the next day at sunset.

But before August 1809, direct flights between the two places required great risks. Under the threat of blocking and threatening of the British Mediterranean fleet, the sea route between Barcelona and Marseille became tortuous and complex. Any merchant ships from both places almost had to sail offshore along the Mediterranean coast, and the sea route was more than doubled.

Since the second half of the year, the situation has changed. A fleet under the registered address of Barcelona, ​​named "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" was able to run rampant in various parts of the Mediterranean and even the Atlantic Ocean, but the British Mediterranean Fleet turned a blind eye to this. What is even more incredible is that the British fleet also secretly escorted the company's ships, cracking down on competitors of the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" in Spain, France and Italy, and publicly encircled and suppressed smuggled merchant ships.

In just three months, the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company", which started with three small and medium-sized merchant ships, suddenly expanded 20 times and developed into a huge commercial fleet with more than 60 large and medium-sized ships, which is veritable overlord of the Western Mediterranean shipping. By late November, the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" monopolized more than one-third of the shipping trade volume between Spain, France and Italy. The Pearl of the Mediterranean Peninsula and the bustling Free Port of Barcelona have become a private exclusive port of the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company".

The bosses of shipping companies that were defeated by the "Mediterranean United Shipping" were unwilling to accept the bankruptcy of their fleet, and a large number of crew members and ships were acquired by their opponents at low prices. Even after they learned that the boss behind the "Mediterranean United Shipping" was a French general (Grand Duke of Hruna), they were still unwilling to give up and determined to retaliate.

The ship owners united, in Barcelona, ​​Marseille, Geana, Naples and other places, bribed officials and judges, slandered the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" to collude with the *** pirates and the British Mediterranean Fleet (the latter is not a slander, it is a fact), oppressed the kind ship owners, monopolized the route, and hindered normal trade.

Under the influence of city officials, the magistrate of Barcelona first rejected all charges from the ship owners; the maritime courts in Marseille and Geana followed closely and agreed that the allegations from the ship owners had no factual basis and refused to file a case.

Only the Maritime Court in Naples accepted the lawsuit. Before the attorney of the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" was entrusted to the defense, the presiding judge hurriedly announced that the "Mediterranean United Shipping Company" had lost the case, which had to give up the shipping monopoly and compensate the ship owners for economic losses of up to 10 million riyals.

At this moment, it was the Duke of Desai's turn to be angry. At first, he tried to use civilized means to conduct friendly negotiations with the King of Naples Mura, hoping that the latter would interfere with the judgment of the maritime court in Naples. But the proud King of Desai refused the Duke of Desai's request, and he used the excuse of advocating judicial justice and respecting justice**.

If the literary ones are not good, then the martial ones are not good; if the soft ones are not good, then the hard ones are always the Desai position in doing things.

After actively obtaining understanding with the British Mediterranean Fleet, in accordance with the secret order of the Duke of Desay, eight large merchant ships were re-transformed into warships in a very short time, and formed a temporary fleet with 600 large-caliber artillery and 4,000 sailors (including Marines). They flew skeleton flags for pirates, blocked the port of Naples, seized all ships, and scared away the attacks of the Kingdom of Naples several times.
Chapter completed!