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In the 37th episode of "Water Margin", Zhang Shun, the "white stripe in the waves", could not defeat Li Kui on the shore, so he sent him down the Xunyang River.
Li Kui did not know the nature of water, and was "soaked in the whites of his eyes, then lifted up, and then accepted", and after fishing out, he "gasped for breath and spat out white water in his mouth"... I could only reluctantly say, "You bumped into me on the road." ”
Zhang Shun said, "I'll just wait for you in the water." ”
The white stripe in the waves plays Li Kui
In Europe in 1805, the newly crowned Napoleon the Great was like a "black whirlwind", sweeping through Liuhe, and no one could stop him. But deep inside the Emperor, there was always a nightmarish shadow — it was the end of the continent, and Horatio Nelson drove his warship and shouted, "I'll just wait for you in the water!"!
The Battle of Trafalgar that year was the last major naval battle of the Age of Sails and the first domino to tear down napoleon's Empire – although this would not be proven until a full decade later.
For Napoleon, the nightmare began in 1798, at the mouth of the Nile in distant Egypt...
At that time, there was no Napoleon Emperor, and there was no Napoleon's first rule, and in the face of the heavy siege of the European countries against the French Revolution, the talented young general Bonaparte unexpectedly jumped out of the circle and fought outside the wei to save Zhao to relieve the local crisis. He first made an expedition to Italy in 1796, like a sharp knife against Austria's lower abdomen, and the following year forced it to sign an armistice. Next, a grander strategic plan surfaced, that is, to cross the Mediterranean, attack Egypt in the British sphere of influence, and kill the old "nail household" of this anti-French alliance.
Napoleon's outside tactics
The French were not afraid of land wars, but as a land-and-sea complex, their navy had been at a disadvantage against Britain, which had centuries of maritime traditions. On this expedition to Egypt, the fleet was carrying the army, taking advantage of the lack of British ships that blockaded the port, sneaking out, according to the Maltese description, the French "escaped" successfully, "jumping and jumping like children, happily thanking them for their good luck." ”
On 29 July 1798, the French landed in the village of Malabout near the Grand Port of Alexandria, and since then their good fortune has remained for the last 72 hours.
With his feet on land, Napoleon was fearless, he led a vanguard of 4,000 men, and before he could unload his heavy weapons, he dared to attack Alexandria, and at noon the next day, he swept away the mighty Egyptian Mamluk cavalry and took the whole of Alexandria.
On 1 August, Captain Nelson arrived as promised. On this side, General Bries of the French Navy lined up in the Gulf of Aboukir near the mouth of the Nile to meet the enemy. Aboukir was a deep-water bay in the shape of a "c", lined up by French ships, blocking the gap of this "c", with its back to the harbor gun port outwards. If according to the usual tactics of naval warfare at that time, the fleet was arranged horizontally and bombarded with side-side guns, the situation of the French army was really like the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles, impenetrable.
Nelson, like Napoleon, who liked to take risks and win by surprise on land, fished through the fish, avoided the frontal French gunfire, and attacked the end of the "c" word, that is, the battery at the corner of Aboukir Harbor. Dozens of warships, thousands of cannons, quickly opened the gap, killed into the "c" belly, the French "Great Wall" fell into the embarrassment of the enemy on the stomach and back.
Battle of the Nile Estuary
The battle began at 5:30 p.m. and by 9:45 p.m., the French flagship Orient was sunk, almost a massacre of British troops. Fifteen French warships were sunk or captured, 4 generals, including Lieutenant General Bries, more than 1,700 officers and men were killed, and more than 3,000 people, including seven captains, were captured. The British wounded only two ships, with less than 1,000 casualties in total.
Even the main general and the flagship were lost, and the French could not be said to be brave, but unfortunately, they encountered the invincible "Napoleon of the sea" - General Nelson.
As the god of war at sea, in terms of bravery and adventurous spirit, Nelson was even crazier than Napoleon. In his consciousness, repelling the enemy fleet is far from a victory, and such a navy is still a vassal of the army, and only by sinking or capturing the enemy ship can the navy's mission be truly completed.
At the Battle of St. Vincent in 1797, Nelson openly disobeyed the orders of the commander of the fleet, broke away from the formation, and attacked the enemy's Spanish fleet alone, forcing several enemy ships to stop in succession, personally leading sailors to board the ships for hand-to-hand combat, forcing the Spaniards to surrender.
At that time, the number of British ships and West ships was 15:27, nearly doubling the gap. Nelson braved the strong enemy "dare to show the sword", took the initiative to attack, and achieved the so-called "Nelson spirit" of posterity, and since then he has become famous in one battle, promoted to rear admiral, and was awarded the title of Lord.
Image of young Nelson
It is hard to imagine that this mad dog-like sea "war maniac", only 1.74 meters tall, weighs less than 60 kilograms, is weak and sick and often seasick. Perhaps because he liked to charge forward, but he was really not good at fighting, Nelson lost one right eye and half of his right arm (below the elbow) in the war, and he was already a one-armed one-eyed dragon before the Battle of the Nile Estuary. Its true image should be shown in the image below.
One-armed Nelson on London's Trafalgar Square
After the Battle of the Nile Estuary, the French ships were completely destroyed, Napoleon's support was cut off, and he waited for more than a year before boarding the cruiser "Mirren", once again like a thief, sneaking around the British ship blockade line to return home. France's dream of conquering Egypt and moving east into India was wiped out.
In 1801, it was Nelson again, commanding the fleet to attack Copenhagen, knocking on the door to bully people, and disintegrating Napoleon's northern alliance with Russia, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.
I can't get used to you and can't destroy you, this feeling is helpless and powerless. In 1804, Napoleon became emperor, and since then he has dominated the European continent, controlled Spain, and formed an unprecedentedly powerful French-Spanish combined fleet. This time, can he kill Nelson?
Napoleon's original intention was to draw a circle in the North Atlantic, lead the main Force of British ships to the Vicinity of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea of North America, and then turn around and attack the British islands. After the Battle of the Nile Estuary, the French people unconsciously suffered from "British phobia" and lost the courage to fight to the death at sea. In a game of mobilization and counter-mobilization, the fighters were fleeting, and the combined fleet circled the ocean in vain, and was finally blocked by the British pursuit fleet in the port of Cadiz, Spain. If it is to stand out, a decisive battle must be fought along cape Trafalgar off the coast of Cadiz.
Napoleon's brain-opening tactic of "turning the tiger away from the mountain"
Before the battle, Nelson feasted on the captains and laid out the tactics of the front. He made it clear that once the battle began, he would not give any more orders, there was no need to interfere with the experienced veterans, and there was only one general principle: "In case the signal is not visible or cannot be understood, the captain who does so will not be wrong even if he brings the battleship close to the enemy." This is also Nelson's consistent tough style.
On 21 October 1805, the two sides met in Trafalgar. At 10 a.m., Nelson's flagship issued a flag to the entire fleet
England expects that every man will do his duty
This has also become the motto of the British Royal Navy to this day.
The course of the battle was the same as that of the Nile estuary. The combined fleet led by Vernav was still in a conformist horizontal row, with the side gun ports facing outward. Nelson's fleet, on the other hand, was divided into three sections, the vanguard, the middle army, and the rearguard, avoiding artillery fire and cutting sausages.
The posture of the battle at the beginning of the battle
Nelson led the flagship Victory, directly attacking the French flagship "Busantol" of the Chinese army, and the British deputy commander Collingwood's "Royal Monarch" cut between the opposing Chinese and defenders.
This situation is precisely a reflection of the very different mentalities of the two armies before the war.
French commander-in-chief Villeneuve was impressed by the defeat on the Nile, and before the battle began, he ordered the fleet to make a 180-degree turn in preparation for the unfavorable situation and the retreat to the port of Cadiz. It was not easy for the big ships of the sail age to turn around against the wind, which made the formation of the combined fleet chaotic, and more importantly, it hit the morale that was not high. Nelson, on the other hand, was aggressive, changing his flag for the last time at 12 noon, typing "Engage the enemy more closely."
Of course, the marine duel is different from the "bright sword" on land, morale is important, but more important is the technical tactics and equipment.
Under Nelson's tutelage, the British ships seemed to fight separately, but they were well coordinated, could accurately judge the weak links of the other side, quickly maneuvered to their respective favorable positions, formed a two-on-one or three-to-one local advantage over the target in the main direction of attack, concentrated firepower to annihilate the enemy first, and then expand the results one by one.
This is the so-called "Nelson tactic", but in fact, it is completely consistent with the principle adopted by his old man in the past, concentrating superior forces, rapidly interspersing encirclement, and destroying the enemy in mobile warfare.
Nelson's flagship of the year: the three-story battleship Victory
The equipment advantage is even more obvious. Just to name a few: the British ship was loaded with a large number of the most advanced carronades at that time, this large-caliber short gun was light and short, could load larger solid shells, so it was powerful, enjoyed the title of "crusher", and was also equipped with a recoil skateboard, and the muzzle could be lifted to facilitate large arc turning and aiming. The British gunners were of higher quality and excellent marksmanship, not only had a high hit rate, but also had a rate of fire almost double that of the French ships.
Under such a generation gap, it is only a matter of time before the victory or defeat is won. At about 2 p.m., the combined fleet "Busanthor" announced its surrender, and the commander of the fleet, Vernav, was captured. In this battle, the British suffered a total of more than 1500 casualties, no loss of warships, the French-Spanish combined fleet lost 3243 casualties, 2538 wounded, more than 7000 captured, 1 battleship was sunk, 17 captured.
A perfect victory, the only surprise was that the British lost General Nelson forever.
General Patton said:
The best outcome for a soldier is to be killed by the last bullet in the last battle.
This is where Nelson belongs.
After the battle, Nelson went out of his way to the deck to take command and refused to change the dress full of medals. The attendants advised him that the goal was too obvious, but Nelson said, "I will gloriously receive it, and I will die with it honorably." In a word, he was hit by an enemy sniper, and the bullet penetrated his left lung and shot into the spine, hopelessly. At 4:30 p.m., after receiving the final report, Nelson closed his eyes and closed his mind.
Nelson's death
Nelson died, but the fiasco in Trafalgar meant that Napoleon never had another chance to conquer the sea and conquer England. The Emperor could only vent his anger on land, and before and after the naval battle, he won successive victories at the Battle of Ulm and the Battle of Austerlitz, crushed Austria and Russia, the Third Coalition collapsed, and the following year beat Prussia in Jena, trampling all the strong enemies on land.
In November 1806, Napoleon issued the Edict of Berlin, the Continental Blockade Order, which completely blocked trade between Britain and the European continent. By 1807, he had twice issued an upgraded version of the Edict of Milan, extending the blockade to all neutral ships berthed in English ports.
Proceeding from his usual land power mentality, the emperor launched a trade war that challenged the entire ocean.
Emperor Napoleon
Napoleon believed that the continental blockade would trap the British like egg whites wrapped in egg yolks. However, Britain, which controlled the world's sea power and trade resources, was like an eggshell wrapped in egg whites, which in turn trapped the European continent. In 1807, the British issued the Privy Council Decree prohibiting any ship from carrying goods to France without British approval, and prohibiting any neutral vessel from trading between any two French ports. The subtext is that Lao Tzu will seal all your ports and isolate all overseas trade!
Zhang Beihai, the general of the "Space Force" in "The Three-Body Problem", said:
The forefront of the navy should be the enemy's port.
The British did it, and kicked their noses in the face, pointing to where to fight.
In August 1807, the British army landed on the Danish island of Zealand, shelled Copenhagen, destroyed the dockyard, and destroyed the Danish Navy; in November, it raided Lisbon, transporting the Portuguese royal family to Brazil; in 1809, it sneaked into the French shipyard in Antwerp and destroyed the French warships; in 1812, it blockaded and attacked France's North American ally, the United States, and in 1814, it captured Washington and burned the White House...
Shipyard after British destruction
Under the long-term blockade, the European continent was short of materials and rampant smuggling, and along with Napoleon's senseless conquests one after another, France was even more depleted of people's wealth and rivers were declining.
Overseas, the British economy grew rapidly in a competitive vacuum, and while Napoleon raised military funds by plundering other countries, the British spent pounds and organized "anti-French alliances" again and again. Like the Prussian Legion, which was reconstituted in 1813, most of the armament was provided by the British.
When distant Russia was the first to jump out of the blockade and resume trade with the British, Napoleon had to order an army of 600,000 men to march to Moscow in 1812. Almost all of his troops were buried in the vast snowy plains of Russia. In 1813, In the "Battle of National Liberation" in Leipzig, France was defeated. Napoleon abdicated for the first time in 1814. By the defeat of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon's political career came to an end.
It is the Battle of Trafalgar ten years ago that began the initial procedure for the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire.
History is not far away.
Today, that sea-land complex power is rising, and it is bound to encounter the encirclement and blockade of traditional maritime hegemonic countries, and obstruct it by means of trade blockade and military deterrence. Looking back at Napoleon, Nelson, and their Trafalgar, learning from history, we may be able to find new answers from old stories.