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6th, 1811, Bavrell.

Desai no longer made public appearances on the flagship "King" on the grounds of physical discomfort.

But in fact, he and Bomai and others took Jenkinson and secretly boarded a three-masted sailboat flying the Danish flag, sailed out of the Port of Bavrell, and headed to the Isle of Wight in southern England.

Two hours later, when the merchant ship escaped the French Navy's investigation and crossed the central waters of the English Channel, a white-white and blood-red flag of St. George, exclusive to the British Navy, replaced the previous Danish flag.

In a confidential arrangement, Desai Light Car was simply surrounded by him, Lieutenant Garset.

After he was in a high position in command, time travelers rarely ventured alone. That was his second life, so no matter where he went, there were always a large group of guards around him, whether in Paris, Manresa, or a battlefield filled with smoke.

Originally, Desai wanted to arrive in southern England on his flagship "King", but things had changed. The commander of the British local fleet stationed in Pthmouth, regardless of the instructions of the Downing Street Cabinet, always refused any foreign ships, especially large first-class battleships such as the "King" approached the absolutely safe waters guarded by the British Royal Fleet.

Under this circumstance, Desai took the initiative to compromise and did not make it difficult for Liverpool and others to make things difficult for them.

The Regent changed to a British Navy spy ship, and he paid tribute to the British Empire as the monarch of both countries.

It is not humiliating or shameful to weak countries for taking the initiative to lose sincerity to strong countries, but rather a very wise diplomatic strategy.

At least Desai thinks that he has shown the British his "strong muscles" on the Portuguese battlefield.

In his previous life, he was a businessman from Chongli, so his face was never as important as his inner world. Especially when Desay was about to rush to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which was surrounded by tigers and wolves, he needed support from Britain.

The regent's move of concession made General Bomai, who accompanied him, feel a lot more favorable to him, and alleviated the conflict between the commander of the local fleet and the minister of the Imperial War.

So the British naval officer was unusually accompanied by Desay on the back deck.

But from the beginning to the end, Desai closed his lips and said nothing, staring at the English Channel shrouded in the rain. At this time, the time traveler was wandering in space. He was fantasizing about the spectacular scene where millions of allies landed in Normandy after 133 years.

Soon, Bomai felt too bored and returned to the cabin on his own, picked up the notes handed to him by Desay, and read them to pass the time. However, 20 minutes later, the British rushed over again, and he shouted at Desay, "Your Highness, I suggest you recruit this French naval colonel named Belson, with his qualifications and abilities, to be a commander of the British fleet."

"Oh," Desai turned around and asked in a shocked look: "If I remember correctly, in Belson's more than 20-year naval career, he has not been able to win a naval battle against you Britain."

Bermay's disdainful expression appeared on his face again, saying, "That was a strategic mistake by the senior officials of the Paris Admiralty, and the random command of the stupid fleet commander, which had nothing to do with him. If I remember correctly, Colonel Belson should be the most troublesome and difficult French naval commander that Lord Nelson said during his lifetime. Well, the Mediterranean Fox!"

With the British further explanation, Desai learned about the glorious record of Colonel Belson and the helplessness of the Trafalgar naval hero.

Belson was a descendant of a French noble family. At the age of 16, he joined the Royal Navy as a candidate for the French family. At this time, the French Revolution had just broken out, and his unusual political sense prompted Belson to take the initiative to apply for the French fleet stationed in the West Indies, which was the most difficult to meet, thus avoiding the terror reign of the Jacobins during the tyranny of the Jacobins.

During the horror period from 1793 to 1794, the Revolutionary Government completely ruined the once glorious French Navy, and three-quarters of the noble officers died on the bloody guillotine or were forced to go into exile abroad. The discipline on the French ships was abandoned, and the sailors actually chose their commanders by voting, resulting in the most voiced and mediocre ability of the guys who had the most power of command.

Being far away from France, Belson in the West Indian fleet was not affected by the revolution, but rose step by step and became the acting captain of an offshore gunboat. During the absurd peace period when the French colonial navy was most harmonious with the British navy, Belson hid in the cabin and quietly read the book "On Naval Tactics" written by British John Clark.

When reading "On Naval Tactics", Belson once had a premonition that the British fleet was about to change their traditional naval combat tactics, abandoning the conservative and slow column formation, forming a group of mutually supported combat ships, and concentrating most of the fleet's firepower, focusing on attacking small numbers of enemy ships in the avant-garde or defender...

In short, it means winning by surprise, dividing the enemy formation, and attacking the enemy unexpectedly.

So, Belson made a sad comment in his diary, boldly predicting that this era change in the British Navy might completely ruin the French fleet, which was accustomed to the implementation of fighting and running away and was interested in maritime guerrilla tactics.

Soon, General Nelson fully confirmed the young Frenchman's prediction through a series of brilliant achievements, which was completely correct.

In the era of governors dominated by Balas, Paris gradually realized their various mistakes about the navy. In 1797, Captain Belsson, who was only 25 years old, became the youngest captain of the French ship, commanding a cruise ship called "Anchor".

The following year, the Anchorage cruiser, which had 28 artillery guns, participated in the military operation of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. In this huge fleet, 13 large battleships, 42 cruise ships, and other small ships, as well as 130 ships shipped troops and supplies transport ships, as well as more than 30,000 army officers and soldiers.

In order to avoid the British Mediterranean fleet led by Nelson to encircle and intercept the French Expeditionary Force on the sea, Captain Belson, together with three other French ships, was ordered to leave the main channel of the entire formation. They swam from Sicily to the Greek waters, deliberately seducing the followers and pursuits of Nelson's fleet, winning the favorable opportunity for the main ship led by Napoleon to land in Alexandria.

When the mission was finally completed, the only four French ships serving as bait were left with the "Anchorage" cruise ships that successfully arrived in Alexandria. After the successful cover mission, Captain Belson was promoted to Navy Major.

Fortunately, due to the stupid command of Lieutenant General Bruyer, the French Expeditionary Fleet was completely defeated by Nelson's fleet in the battle between the Nile. Among the more than 20 French main warships, the flagship Oriental sank after explosion... In the end, only two of them broke through the encirclement of the British Navy. One of them was the "Anchorage" commanded by Major Belson, and the other was the flagship of the French fleet's defender Rear Wernav, the "Guillaume Tyre".

Compared with the French fleet, although Britain did not lose a warship, the biggest loss was a second-class battleship, the Thunder, which was killed in the fleet, and the warship was almost beaten into a hull without a mast.

Afterwards, when counting the results of the battle, the British discovered that an inconspicuous French patrol ship "Anchor" cooperated with the French battleship "Guillaume Tyre" to actively challenge the oncoming British ship "Thunder" through a seemingly suicide counterattack method.

In the third round of precise sidewalk volleys, Captain Belson commanded the "Anchor" seriously injured the enemy ship captain Colonel Tonard. In addition, the fierce strafing of another Guillaume Tyre, causing chaos in the command system of the "Thunder". If another British battleship "Backwind" had not arrived in time to support, the British ship would have encountered an unexpected accident.

Although the French Expeditionary Force's surface ship formation was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of the Nile Estuary, it was a blessing for Major Belson. First, Belson was appreciated by the commander of the defender, Rear General Wernoff, and was accepted as his confidant, and then became a star of the French Navy. Second, the British also noticed Belson because General Nelson gave the young French naval officer a very loud nickname - the Mediterranean Fox!

A few years later, General Napoleon Bonaparte, who sneaked back to France from Egypt, became the first ruler of the Republic through a military coup and ruled for life. In December 1804, he was successfully "elected" as the emperor of the French Empire.

In retaliation for the humiliation imposed by the British Navy on the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Napoleon rebuilt a huge French navy. In 1804, Lieutenant General Wernav succeeded as the supreme commander of the Toulon fleet, and at the same time, Belson was promoted to naval colonel and served as the captain of the second-class battleship "Egypt".

It seems that once good luck finds Belson, he and the French Navy will suffer a severe disaster.

In 1805, a sea battle that affected the historical process broke out in the Trafalgar Sea. Lieutenant General Wernoff, who had always been stubborn, lazy, and "infected with Nelson terror syndrome", refused to adopt the correct suggestions of the captains of the Faspits, including Colonel Belson. In order to prove himself to Napoleon, he hurriedly sent a joint fleet to fight the British at sea, which led to the biggest devastating defeat in the history of the French navy.

During the Battle of Trafalgar, the British army died 449 people and injured 1,214 people. The French army died 3,373 people and injured 1,155 people. The Spanish army died 1,022 people and injured 1,383 people. A total of 3,400 people were captured by the joint fleet. Injured, killed and captured, there were 14,000 people. Among the 33 battleships of the French and Spanish Combined Fleet, 12 were captured, 7 were completely lost in combat power, 1 was on fire, 9 were fleeing to Cadiz, and 4 fled to Gibraltar...

Later generations commented: "In any case, the Battle of Trafalgar was a memorable battle, and it had a wide impact on history. It completely shattered Napoleon's dream of conquering Britain. The battle of British and French maritime hegemony for a hundred years ended. It gave Britain a maritime empire that lasted for more than a century."

But what the world does not know is that the Faspisian joint fleet, which lost a mess, still has a special highlight in this naval battle. This is the glorious deed of the French second-class battleship "Egypt" commanded by Colonel Belson to rescue a Spanish warship.

When the Battle of Trafalgar began, Colonel Belson had a premonition of the failure of the United Fleet. Although he and his sailors fought hard, severely damaged a British warship and forced them to withdraw from the battle, they could not change their fate of failure.

As the entire battle was approaching, the Egyptian, which lost nearly half of the sailors, flew white flags to the two British warships that surrounded him as a signal of surrender. After the British relaxed their vigilance, the Egyptian quietly grabbed the best position, and set sail and fled in the extremely shocked expression of the British sailors.

When the British fleet was immersed in a great victory but lost Lord Nelson's great pain, the Egyptian did not return to the port of Cadiz in Spain, but instead joined forces with a lost French cruiser, the Coast, to follow behind the British fleet.

When night was about to fall, the storm was shattered. The Egyptian and the Coast used the darkness and storms as cover to raid the two British warships responsible for escorting the captured coalition ships. In a hasty melee, the sailors of a Spanish warship subdued the British Marines who boarded the ship and took the opportunity to successfully escape from the encirclement.

When a large number of British defender warships arrived one after another, the Egyptian and the Coast had calmly escaped from the battle under the command of Colonel Belson and disappeared into the vast night.

This local small victory did not bring any good luck to Colonel Belson. Due to Emperor Napoleon's extremely angry at the defeat in the Battle of Trafalgar, the fire of ignorance burned from the head of the commander of the United Fleet, Lieutenant General Wernoff, to the latter's confidant, Colonel Belson.

Colonel Belson, who returned to the port of Cadiz, immediately lost command of the battleship "Egypt". If it were not for the many sailors of the Spanish warship who had been successfully rescued, Colonel Belson would have suffered a prison disaster.

In April 1806, General Wernoff, who was captured, was released and returned to France, but died suddenly in Paris on the 22nd of that month, with six knife wounds on his chest, but the record says that suicide was committed and he was buried that night. It is said that Napoleon sent someone to kill him.

As for the Navy Colonel Belson who was forgiven by the military court, he left Cadiz and was re-selected to the Brest Military Port on the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean, serving as an inconspicuous chief of logistics departments and doing nothing all day long.

However, at this time, the Imperial Navy's plan to build a ship has not stopped. Another three years have 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.

However, when the warships were available and the sailors were pulled, they lacked qualified fleet commanders.

Therefore, Paris re-activated Colonel Belson and appointed him as commander of the Ferrore squadron in the northwest corner of Spain. But what is puzzling is that the Minister of the Admiral was not promoted to the rank of Brigadier General of the squadron as usual due to concerns about Emperor Napoleon's dissatisfaction.

In May 1808, after Barongna's conspiracy eventually broke down the alliance between the two countries, Belson's keen intuition saved himself again, saving the French squadron stationed at the Ferroy military port. He abandoned the old naval training constraints, decisively led more than 20 warships and transport ships to set sail, and sailed overnight away from his former allies and today's mortal enemy, Spain's Ferroy military port, unscathed, broke through the British fleet blockade and safely returned to France's military port in the English Channel.

Meanwhile, the French squadron stationed in Cadiz suffered a massacre after surrendering to the Spanish.

Although the Navy Military Court once again declared Colonel Belson, who had "escaped at the last minute", was acquitted, he was sent to the Cherbourg military port on the other side of the English Channel to serve as the commander of a squadron of the French local fleet, with only one fourth-class battleship and four cruise ships under his command.

In March 1811, Paris hated Colonel Belson's repeated ministers of the Navy, demanding the reform of the naval system, and immediately issued an order to allow the unknown meritorious French naval commander to retire by himself before the end of this year; otherwise, Colonel Belson would be escorted to the special Navy court for the third time, allowing him to undergo at least two years of prison life.

...

After hearing the glorious deeds of Navy Colonel Belson from the British oral narrative, Desai couldn't help but sigh and said in his heart: "Damn, this is the real naval talent. Even the proud British naval officers admired it very much."

So Desai made up his mind and immediately recruited the only hero in the French Navy after returning to the Bavrell Harbour and receiving the investigation report from the Military Intelligence Bureau.

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Note, I cried bitterly when I wrote this.

After spending a whole day searching for the historical materials of the French naval from 1789 to 1811, I couldn't find a decent French naval officer. As a last resort, I had to compile a hero by myself, Colonel Belson.
Chapter completed!