Make France Great Again-Chapter 948 - 939: Blitzkrieg in Morocco
January 13, 1858.
After continuous bombardment of information for several days, the Parisians gradually became aware of the global situation. They no longer chose to overly criticize the government, and the reputation of the French Empire in Paris was steadily rebounding.
Some mild Republican newspapers, seeing that the Empire wasn’t brought down even by the economic crisis, also became pessimistic, believing that the Imperial Government could not be opposed.
They simply abandoned the seven-year confrontation and instead published articles praising the Imperial Government in their newspapers.
(Disillusionment of the Republicans.jpg)
Sitting on the sofa, Jerome Bonaparte, after reading this eulogy, immediately concluded that these mild Republican elements were targets that could be won over.
After all, in Jerome Bonaparte’s eyes, be it the Republican Faction or the Royalist Faction!
Any faction willing to support him could be united.
Stepping back further, even factions not opposed to his rule were also people to unite with.
Thus, Jerome Bonaparte immediately ordered Bashirio to invite the Republican members behind the newspapers to the Tuileries Palace, where he and the Empress would personally receive them.
"Your Majesty, for what day should the invitation be dated?" Bashirio asked Jerome Bonaparte.
"Let me think!" Jerome Bonaparte pondered for a moment and then said, "Make the invitation for the 17th!
In the next few days, I will also be inspecting various places in Paris with the Empress!"
"Understood!" Bashirio nodded and replied to Jerome Bonaparte.
Then, Bashirio left the study to prepare the invitation.
Jerome Bonaparte also set aside the newspaper and returned to his desk to handle official duties.
About two hours later, Jerome Bonaparte had finished handling all the documents sent by the secretary’s office and then reorganized them once again.
After Jerome Bonaparte finished reorganizing, he frowned and mumbled, "Strange! How come there are no documents from the General Staff? Logically, it shouldn’t be like this! Did the secretary’s office forget to bring them?"
As Jerome Bonaparte pondered, the figure of Lucien Murat appeared at the doorway, holding several documents that needed Jerome Bonaparte’s attention.
Upon seeing Lucien Murat, Jerome Bonaparte immediately smiled and said to Lucien Murat, "Lucien, you’re just in time!"
"Your Majesty!" Lucien Murat looked at Jerome Bonaparte with a hint of confusion, then bowed slightly and asked, "What are your orders?"
"Why are there no documents from the General Staff in this pile?" Jerome Bonaparte opened his hands to hold down the documents and inquired.
"Your Majesty, the secretary’s office has not yet received any documents from the General Staff!" Lucien Murat replied to Jerome Bonaparte.
"They haven’t received them?" Jerome Bonaparte muttered in a slightly low voice, "Logically, this shouldn’t be possible!
The war has been going on for almost two days. Has the General Staff not received any news from the front line?"
The war Jerome Bonaparte referred to was none other than the joint invasion of the Kingdom of Morocco by the French Empire and the Kingdom of Spain.
The war began on January 11, and it’s already been three days.
But in the Tuileries Palace, where Jerome Bonaparte was, nothing was known apart from the start date of the war.
This puzzled Jerome Bonaparte.
If the distance between Algeria and France was vast, and there was no telegraph, the lack of war reports could be understandable. But telegraphs had long been set up between Algeria and France.
The fact that no news from Algeria had yet been received was truly suspicious.
Could it be that our army was repelled by the Kingdom of Morocco?
An absurd thought emerged from Jerome Bonaparte’s mind, only to be dismissed by him immediately.
The Kingdom of Morocco, a country that couldn’t even defeat the Kingdom of Spain, how could it be a match for France!
Unless the Kingdom of Morocco had a Great Mage named Liu Xiu who could summon meteors to annihilate the French Army.
Otherwise, the Kingdom of Morocco couldn’t possibly defeat the French Army deployed in Algeria.
"Your Majesty, perhaps it’s because the rapid advance of our army led the Governor of Montauban to wait until the complete occupation of the Kingdom of Morocco before sending a telegraph to Paris!" Lucien Murat offered a conjecture.
"Indeed, that’s the only possibility!" Jerome replied to Lucien Murat with a nod, "In that case, I shall personally go to the General Staff!"
"Your Majesty, these documents..." Lucien Murat gestured to the documents in his hand, speaking to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Just leave them on the table for me to handle when I return!" Jerome Bonaparte said, patting the already processed documents on the table, "You can take these away and distribute them to the various departments!"
"Yes!" Lucien Murat placed the files in his hands on the table, then took the already processed documents from Jerome Bonaparte and left.
Not long after Lucien Murat departed, Jerome Bonaparte also, escorted by the Guard Army soldiers, boarded a carriage heading to the General Staff.
At this moment in the General Staff, Nie’er, the current Chief of Staff of the Empire, stood by a map of Morocco deep in thought, with a lieutenant officer standing by his side.
After a while, Nie’er lifted his head and asked the lieutenant, "Has there been any telegram from Algeria yet?"
Seeing this, the lieutenant hurriedly responded to Nie’er, "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, no battle reports from Algeria have arrived yet!"
"What on earth is Governor Kuzen Montebon up to? Has he forgotten the agreement to report every three days? If this continues, how am I supposed to explain to Your Majesty!" Nie’er murmured softly in complaint.
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, this is not your fault!" the lieutenant said to Nie’er.
"The entire war is personally orchestrated by the General Staff! If there’s any mishap, I, as the Chief of Staff, will be in big trouble!" Nie’er misunderstood the lieutenant’s meaning, muttering again, then turned to ask the lieutenant next to him, "Tell me, where have our troops reached now?"
"I suspect they’ve already occupied Oujda and Fez." The lieutenant pointed at the two border towns between Algeria and the Kingdom of Morocco, telling Nie’er.
"You’ve underestimated our army!" Nie’er shook his head in response to the lieutenant, "I estimate they’ve already taken Taza and are advancing towards Fez."
The lieutenant looked at Taza on the map, his face filled with disbelief, "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, our army can’t be moving that fast, can they?"
The distance from Oujda to Tali is at least over 180 kilometers, reaching Tali in three days is indeed possible, provided the Moroccan Army does not obstruct.
However, even if the Moroccan Army is inadequate, they would still try to hinder them, making it unlikely to reach Tali within two days.
"Do you want to make a bet?" Nie’er proposed a bet to the lieutenant.
The lieutenant was about to agree to Nie’er’s proposed bet when a staff officer holding a telegram burst into the operations meeting room.
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, the report from Algeria has arrived!" The staff officer handed the telegram to Nie’er while speaking to him.
Nie’er, receiving the telegram, after reading its contents, displayed a shocked expression on his face.
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, what’s the matter?" The lieutenant looked at Nie’er puzzledly, then glanced at the telegram with his peripheral vision.
Subsequently, the lieutenant also showed a look of shock on his face.
"It seems we both guessed wrong!" Nie’er replied to the lieutenant with a tinge of joy, "Our troops are not on the way; they have already occupied it!"
Nie’er pointed towards Fez, nearly 300 kilometers from the border, while speaking to the lieutenant.
The lieutenant could not fathom how their troops managed to fly over in three days; surely it wasn’t by relying on cavalry breaking through recklessly and occupying it!
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, may I take a look at the report?" The lieutenant asked Nie’er.
Just now, he had only caught a glimpse of the news about the army occupying Fez, without seeing how exactly it was taken.
"Here you go!" Nie’er happily handed over the report to the lieutenant.
The lieutenant, receiving the report, continued to read onwards.
It turned out that their army indeed relied on cavalry rushing to the Kingdom of Morocco’s Fez to implement their occupation.
The cavalry units, equipped with Mauser rifles, abandoned the heavy armor and cavalry guns they wore, practicing "gun fighting techniques" instead.
When French reconnaissance cavalry spotted the Moroccan Kingdom’s cavalry from afar, they swiftly conducted long-distance shooting against them.
The Moroccan cavalry, wielding sabers, had never seen such a thing as shooting from horseback before. In just one encounter, the Moroccan Kingdom’s reconnaissance cavalry was slaughtered by the French Empire’s reconnaissance cavalry.
Following this, French reconnaissance cavalry relayed this information to General MacMahon, commanding the Oujda route.
General MacMahon, commanding the army, quickly responded, immediately ordering his troops to bring the newly equipped Chasepo machine guns to the front lines, while the infantry advanced slowly.
Six Chasepo machine guns swiftly reached the predetermined location, waiting for the Moroccan army to fall into the trap.
After a while, the French army also followed suit.
(General MacMahon initially thought the Moroccan army would reach the predetermined location before the French, underestimating their marching speed.)
After some more time, a Moroccan army of nearly 7,000 men arrived slowly.
Upon spotting the already prepared French army, the entire formation fell into chaos.
General MacMahon decisively ordered his six Chasepo machine guns to open fire while commanding his 4,000 French troops to flank the Moroccan forces along the sides of the Chasel machine guns.
Poor Moroccan army, within less than an hour, was completely annihilated by a barrage of heavy firepower.
