Since September of the 30th year of the Empire, the Empire has begun to hand over ironclad ships to France, and has built a repair dock in Brest, a port along the Atlantic coast of France. The French Navy has entered the ranks of Europe for a time.

In fact, the imperial naval community never believed that France entered the modern ranks. In the eyes of professional navy, the warships obtained by the French were not called ironclad ships at all, and could only be considered warships with steam assisted power.

After entering the empire for February 31, two fleets of the French Navy were formed. One was the Atlantic Fleet, including forty sail battleships, first-class battleships and fourth-class battleships. Most of these ships were old-style ships from the French Navy, and several friendly gifts from the Imperial Navy, which were old ships originally sealed by the Navy.

These forty battleships were mainly equipped with old-fashioned short-heavy artillery of the Imperial Navy and improved the sail cable system. The main force of the Atlantic Fleet was the French Navy's First Battleship Detachment, with a total of eight battleships, three first-class battleships with more than one hundred artillery pieces, and five second-class battleships with ninety artillery pieces. Four of these twelve ships were newly built by the French Navy in recent years. Four were purchased from the current battleships of the Imperial Navy's Black Sea Fleet. All battleships have been modified and steam power is added as auxiliary power.

The second fleet was the Mediterranean Fleet of the French Navy, with a total of seventeen warships, but they are the real elites of the French Navy and the essence of cooperation with the Imperial Navy. All ships were renovated from the main shipyard of the Empire. Although they were still wooden hulls, they were equipped with wrought iron armor and used 960 horsepower steam engines as power. The strongest one had 4,500 tons, equipped with twenty-two wine bottle cannons, the smallest one was 2,500 tons, and equipped with fourteen wine bottle cannons.

At the end of the thirty years of the empire and the beginning of the thirty years of the empire, the two fleets had formed a combat power. With the hiring of some of the empire's mechanics and naval officers, both fleets had already formed combat power.

Then, the grand occasion of the ironclad fleet that Louis XIV had expected to slap the main force of the British Navy in one fell swoop. When the French Navy's ironclad fleet formed its combat effectiveness, the British Navy was already in a mess, because the expected mediation of China did not appear, and the entire UK was already in a wartime state and was preparing for a full-scale war. This was the first time that the army became the top priority, and the Navy's funds were misappropriated. The British Navy could no longer organize a large fleet for the decisive battle at sea, and the French Navy launched an attack at the end of February of the 31st year of the Empire. The waves were high above the North Sea, and many British ships could not even go to sea.

It is undeniable that new ships played a huge role in combating Britain. The commander-in-chief of the French Navy deployed the old sail-powered fleet in the narrow areas of the English Channel, alerting and blocking British ships, the Mediterranean Fleet and the First Battleship Squadron formed a mobile force to escort the transport fleet. As a result, the British Navy only sent a small number of light ships to harass and reconnaissance, and did not dare to leave the port to fight.

Under the cover of the navy, the French Army began to land on the British mainland since March 1, 31, the 31st year of the Empire. The British Army's resistance was very weak. The first wave of organized counterattack was March 11. In a full ten days, more than 10,000 people in the French Army had landed ashore and seized the Port of Plymouth. The reason why the British Army performed so poorly was exactly the same as the reason why France accelerated its attack on the British mainland, that is, the two military forces supported by the Empire had already landed in the UK.

As early as mid-January of the 31st year of the Empire, a fleet of transport from Atlantic City sent Fitz James' Irish regiment to the Irish Island. Even though the British could not protect themselves, the situation in Ireland was on the verge of collapse. Fitz James was very influential on the Irish Island. He was the first to lead the Irish Catholics to fight the British local army. In the end, he found a way out for the Irish army. So when Fitz James' army landed, the local people in Ireland welcomed each other, and the Catholics joined his army, and soon restored the entire island of Ireland.

On February 20, the British Army stationed in the Netherlands and had sworn allegiance to James II also launched a landing war against the Scotland. A merchant fleet that originally imported food for the Netherlands was hired by Churchill and directly sent the army to the Scotland. James II's Stuart family was originally from Scotland, and there were quite a few Catholics in Scotland. Although Churchill's army could not respond to all the food in Scotland, it did not encounter much resistance.

Britain had long decided to give up Ireland. After all, when the sea power was lost, such an island that was close to the corner could not be preserved, but Scotland could not be given up. Therefore, after learning that Churchill had attacked Scotland, a large number of British troops went north, not only to save Scotland, but also to convince Churchill to jointly defend Britain. As a result, during the army's movement northward movement, the French army, which was originally scheduled to launch an attack in mid-April, was also worried about losing control of the situation. Under Louis XIV's forced order, it launched a landing against England, which resulted in the British Army not caring about its head and but could not save anything.

Amsterdam.

"I'm very happy to see you here, Lord Grand Duke. I'm so sorry, I don't know you're coming, so I'm not ready. I was in a tulip flower bed just now." Li Junwei held the hand of the Elector of Brandenburg of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick Prussian Grand Duke Frederi, in the hotel.

Fredrich smiled and said, "I was not going to come for safety, but I found that you sent my prime minister to a ship to send him back. Since you have your ship, everything is fine, so I came, hoping that my rash arrival will not disturb you."

Frederick doesn't speak Chinese, but his French is very good, and Dan Tai Yunfeng can be the translator.

"Come on, please sit down. My son is a naughty guy, and your son has suffered a lot. I have never apologized to your father in person. I have always felt sorry for him." Li Junwei invited Frederick to sit down.

Fredrich laughed: "What are you talking about? My son is in Xijin, thanks to the care of the little prince. Little William gave me several letters, all of which mentioned that the child is now a classmate with the little prince. They eat and live with each other, which is really a pleasure to live. Even my grandfather is envious."

"What's there to be enviable? Our royal members are free-range. If William is by your side, he will be truly rich and elegant." Li Junwei quipped.

The imperial royal family has always been not very luxurious, and this Grand Duke Frederi has always been known for his extravagance. In short, Li Junwei, the prince of the empire, lived a life as bad as the princes in the German region in front of him.

"Material life is only part. If ideals are not full, they are real emptiness and humiliation." Frederick said a very philosophical saying, but Dan Tai Yunfeng's translation level is not very high, or this book is just a French poem.

Of course, what Fredrich complained about was that his political ambitions were not satisfied in the war, and Prussia, which had achieved considerable results in the war against France, did not receive any substantial benefits. Of course, this only refers to the French side, in fact, being favored by the empire. Establishing friendly political and economic relations with the empire was the greatest gain of Prussia, and it was a gain that was sufficient to change its destiny.

Fredrich is a very talkative person. He completely let himself go in front of Li Junwei. His words were full of dissatisfaction with the Holy Roman Empire. In this empire, Prussia where Fredrich was located was located in the northeast and was always regarded as the most ignorant and uncivilized place. It can be said to be the edge of civilization. Not to mention countries like France and the Netherlands, even some princes in the country looked down upon. Last year, another incident happened. The Lünenburg family in Hanover was promoted to elect the emperor by Leobed I, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and did this just to enhance the chances of the Habsburg family being elected.

This touched Frederick very much. He deeply realized that a person's achievements may not be proportional to his strength. In diplomatic occasions, by using words and exchange of interests, he can get things that the army cannot get.

If Frederius wanted to become the King of Prussia, he came to Amsterdam this time to seek not only the support of the empire, but also the support of the Netherlands. After all, the Netherlands has the most developed financial industry in Europe. In this era, money is needed most for diplomatic activities. Similarly, the Netherlands has a very high influence in the German region. Obviously, Frederius has only one demand, that is, to spiral up his international influence and international status. And Li Junwei warmly welcomed him, and naturally it was not just the friendship between the two sons.

"Do you know these news?" Li Junwei ordered people to bring a diplomatic briefing and handed it to Fredrich. Because it was all in Chinese, Dan Tai Yunfeng read it to him one by one. Li Junwei just observed Fredrich and knew that many news was unknown to him. However, it is no wonder that the Prussian region was originally a region with blocked news. Fredrich came all the way by boat, which was delayed a lot of time. He did not have any embassy locally, so it was appropriate to not know some news.

Although it is a diplomatic briefing, most of it is military intelligence information, mostly related to the British-French war.

After Louis XIV's main army landed in the UK, it advanced rapidly. Because of the British army's back and forth, it did not prevent the French army from landing. Churchill and Fitz James, the two armies secretly authorized by King James II and secretly supported by the Empire stopped after occupying Ireland and Scotland, and were sitting on the mountain to watch the tiger fight. It was in this case that the main forces of Britain and France broke out in a decisive battle on the banks of the Thames.

The battle lasted only four days, and the British Army completely failed. Although the number of this army exceeded 70,000, most of them were just a substitute, which was incomparable to the carefully selected French army. Forty thousand French troops easily defeated the main force of the British Army and went to London. James II announced his resumption in London, and soon received the public support of Fitz James and Churchill. He lost three kingdoms because of a mass, and now he has lost it and recovered.

The next step is to counterattack. Unlike his brother who was just punishing the Round Skull Party, James II launched a massacre in London, and most members of the British Parliament were retaliated, especially the "Immortal Seven" who invited William III to seize power that year, and even the family members were convicted.

Under powerful force suppression, everything went very smoothly. Members of the James Party controlled all important positions in Britain and swept across England and Wales by James' army and French troops. A month ago, James II announced that Catholicism was the state religion, but it caused an uproar.

From the perspective of the people of the empire, this decree of James II can be compared with the Manchus's hair shaving order. Before the decree, everyone fought for William III, and after the decree was promulgated, the British fought for themselves.

With the promulgation of the Catholic decree, uprisings of all sizes broke out throughout the UK. Merchants, citizens, the army, and even some nobles who had surrendered to James II participated in the rebellion. The vigorous uprising swept over most of the British land. In order to suppress these uprisings, James II recruited troops and taxed a large scale, and as a result, he provoked more resistance.

All of this was expected by Li Junwei. These uprisings were mixed with the resistance of nationalist awakened people to the French invading army, including the struggle of exploitation by the middle and lower classes of people, and were also a repetition of the old religious opposition. Although it was very complicated, similar uprisings could never be completely extinguished. Just as the Emperor expected at the time, James II was not popular at all. His loss of the throne was not accidental, but inevitable.

"It seems that the situation in Britain is not optimistic, but what I don't understand is, what does this have to do with me?" Fredrich asked in confusion.

“War is the stage for politicians.”

"But this war has nothing to do with us Prussia."

“The more irrelevant it is, the more you can demonstrate your abilities and influence.”

"But I can't stand on the side of France and James, but if I stand on the opposite side of them, wouldn't it be with failure?"

Li Junwei smiled and patted Fredrich's back of his hand: "Who said the British Resistance Army will definitely fail? At least I don't think so. You are a Protestant country, so are the resistance army. This is the connection between you."

"I'm really stupid, please tell me if you have something to say." Fredrich didn't expect Li Junwei to come like this, and he was not prepared at all.
Chapter completed!