Chapter 23: Abortion of the Battle Plan against the UK (Part 1)

After Napoleon confirmed that Britain was the culprit for organizing the anti-French alliance, he wanted to eliminate this confidant. He was a man with great ambitions and always wanted to conquer Europe and the whole world, but now he was far away from his goal. If there was no obstruction from Britain, he would have solved Prussia and Austria long ago, and then concentrated all his efforts to solve the greedy polar bear, and finally started a war with Britain in full swing. At that time, with the strength of all Europe, would he still be afraid that he could not defeat the small Britain? He drove away all the hypocritical Anglo-Saxons. But those countries were not fools. Under the instigation of Britain, he temporarily gave up the conflicts between each other and fought with France with all his might, which made Napoleon very angry.

In order to defeat Britain and put all the Anglo-Saxons under his feet, Napoleon began to formulate a plan for crossing the sea to fight, but he gave up every time for various reasons.

Napoleon's first plan to invade Britain might be the best plan: the plan was led by Admiral Travery, a fleet of 10 warships, led by Admiral Travery, set off from Toulon to the Atlantic Ocean, meet with the Spanish fleet, and then head to Bren to assemble. However, due to the death of the long-awaited General Latouche on August 14, 1804, the plan was not implemented. Napoleon comforted himself and said: "Changes in any major event are always inevitable." The first combat plan was miscarried.

Since then, the plan has become worse and worse; perhaps Napoleon forgot the law of using straight lines as the shortest between two points, but instead went far and considered too many possibilities. What's worse, on September 29, when he announced the second plan, he appointed Wernav to replace Latoush - which could eventually make any best plan a fool. Because Wernav is definitely an absolute candid, but he is very good at flattering, so he won the favor of Napoleon and was entrusted with important tasks by Napoleon. It seems that anyone still likes others to flatter himself, and even a genius like Napoleon cannot be spared. It doesn't matter that Wernav himself has no ability, but he relies on Napoleon's favor to point fingers at the plan. So the second combat plan cannot be spared and embark on the old path of its predecessors.

On October 12, Wernav, in accordance with Napoleon's order, set off from Toulon to Cadiz to recruit Spanish warships; then sailed to South America and Suriname, landed a 5,600-man army, and then continued to sail to Martinique to meet with the small fleet of Rear Admiral Mises from France. He also attacked some British islands and landed some troops along the way. At the same time, another small fleet from Toulon would sail southward to the African coast, destroying the British trading port there, with the ultimate goal of capturing a tropical island called St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

"The British will find themselves surrounded by enemies in Asia, Africa and America," Napoleon argued eloquently, "the frequent attacks on their global trade waterways will make them feel irresistible." Through the sea sweeps in the Caribbean and Africa, they "will definitely forget the defense here. This will easily panic them... Bren's army... can drive straight into the capture of Kent."

This was undoubtedly a bold plan, according to the plan, to land 190,000 troops on both sides of the Atlantic. This would undoubtedly bring unexpected disaster to the people of those areas. Napoleon still knew nothing about Wernoff's unreliability, while the talented Tritus remained in Brest, and Napoleon blindly had optimistic hopes for success. But unexpected things happened again: on October 8, Napoleon received a report that the British intercepted his full set of plans. Therefore, the entire combat plan was declared invalid.

With the arrival of the new year, in January 1805, the Wernoff fleet remained in Toulon Harbor, hesitant. He objected to Napoleon's entire adventure plan and told DeChris outright that he did not want to show up in such dangerous command posts. However, in October 1804, two of the three Spanish merchant ships were intercepted by the British fleet in Cornwallis, one of which was sunk, Spain had already been in 1804.

On February 12, he declared war on Britain. During the two months, Napoleon felt heavy pressure. As a result, on January 4, 1805, Talleyrand and Spanish envoy to Paris Don Federico Gravia signed a French-Spanish defense agreement in Paris. Spain sent secret envoys to Paris to promise France that they would "do all their enthusiasm" to support France's new allies (the Spanish did it as well). From then on, the Spanish fleet followed France and devoted themselves to the battle against Britain.

On January 16, Napoleon revised the entire combat plan: Mises' fleet sailed to the Caribbean Sea (actually he had arrived there as the first plan), and Wernav's Toulon fleet transported troops to Martinique to land for reinforcements, and at the same time, the fleets of Brest and Rochevot and the fleet from Elferol, Spain. Their purpose was to "revenge" the British colonies and then return to Europe or the Ganarian Islands according to Bren's orders.

On January 18, Wernav finally led a fleet of 10 transport ships and 7 three-masted fast sailing ships, carrying more than 6,000 troops from Toulon Port. However, three days later, his fleet returned to Toulon: his fleet was attacked by a storm at sea, and fearing the fierce interception of the British, he felt that there was no way out except to escape. "If I had met Nelson's fleet at that time," he said bluntly to DeChris, "we would never have escaped." However, there was no shadow of a British ship at the sea at that time.

In this way, Napoleon abolished the fourth plan on January 16 and replaced it with a new plan on March 2: Although Wernoff was still the commander of the Toulon fleet, he was demoted to deputy commander, and his old friend Gontom replaced him as commander. Wernoff led the fleet to Martinique, while Gontom led the larger Brest fleet to Elferol to meet with the combined French and Spanish fleets there. The final purpose was still the same, but between June 10 and July 10, Gontom was going to return to Bren, and Napoleon would wait there in person.

On March 22, just as Wernoff was about to set sail eight days later, the unpredictable Napoleon overturned the fifth plan he had formulated 20 days ago: Wernoff would not go to Martinique, but sail directly to Ireland and then back to Bren, and Guntom went to Martinique and then back to escort Bren's fleet. However, the sixth modification plan was revised on April 13: Napoleon decided that Wernoff would not only go to Martinique, but also after the French and Spanish fleets met with the fleets of Mises and Guntom, Wernoff was commander-in-chief and carried out comprehensive command.
Chapter completed!