Chapter 205: The Guards' First Battle

Chapter 206 The first battle of the Guards Corps

Tunisian city.

In the Kahir Palace, Beyhamud Ali smiled happily as he listened to the battle reports sent back from the front line.

At first, when he learned that Younis had really returned to Tunisia, he was really worried for a while. Fortunately, his concubine Hafsa was extremely smart and expected that Younis would take the risk to raid Kairouan.

After he ordered Koca to prepare in advance, he indeed won a great victory and captured and killed thousands of rebels.

Several officials in the hall immediately offered flattery:

"Isn't it easy for the great Bey to deal with these rebels?"

"The Lord protects Bey and makes his army invincible!"

"After getting rid of Younes, the Algiers will not be able to extort our annual tribute!"

When Ali returned to the harem happily, he couldn't wait to tell Hafsa about the victory.

Contrary to what he expected, Hafsa looked a little worried after hearing this:

"Bey, after a bison is bitten by a lion, it will become ten times more ferocious than usual, and even gore the lion in turn. Although you defeated Eunice once, you must not take it lightly. I think that at this time, We must increase our troops and strive to eliminate the rebels as quickly as possible.”

Although Ali admired her for guessing the rebels twice before, he was a little unimpressed this time. Because according to the battle report just sent back by Koca, Yunis should have only more than 4,000 troops left now, and he was defeated immediately after the rebellion, so he should not be able to make any waves.

He casually said a few words to his beloved concubine, then continued playing music and dancing.

However, Hafsa was like a prophet possessed, and just five days later, bad news came back from the front line.

Koca gathered an army of 13,000 troops to besiege Yunis, but was unexpectedly beaten by the latter's cannon.

The battle report said that the cannon had an extremely long range and was astonishingly powerful. More than ten volleys caused heavy casualties to Koca's forward corps.

Moreover, Younis did not know where to get a large number of very sophisticated muskets, and the firepower was extremely fierce. Under the cover of artillery, it took only a few hours to defeat Koca's encirclement and chase him out of the Chukri Valley.

After this battle, the Praetorian Guards led by Koca no longer dared to confront Younis. At present, Koca can only use the Kairouan fortress to confront Younis.

When Hamoud Ali looked at Hafsa again, he was filled with admiration. He immediately followed her instructions and sent 3,000 garrison troops from the Tunisian city to Kairouan, and also allocated two troops to Koca. Thousands of riyals were used for military expenses.

But in front of the Kairouan Fortress, Younis, who had just won the battle, also had a solemn look on his face.

A week ago, as the French adviser said, a French transport ship arrived at the port of Sfax, bringing 2,000 Charleville flintlocks, 4 6-pound cannons, and 15,000 gold ducats.

He used the weapons and money to quickly regroup his army and then cleanly broke the siege of Koca, driving Koca all the way into the fortress of Kairouan.

However, he also had a headache facing the solid fortress and the tens of thousands of Tunisian Guards guarding it.

If he had more gunpowder and cannonballs, he would be completely confident that he could storm the fortress, at least so that the defenders would not dare to show their faces, and thus bypass this place and go straight to Susa.

But he now only has four carriages of ammunition left, which is not enough to bombard the fortress, and it is not known when the next supply from the French will be delivered.

A few days later, Hamoud Ali's reinforcements arrived in Kairouan first. Koca immediately led the army and attacked Yunis' army again...

While Koca and Younis were engaged in a tug-of-war, more than a dozen transport ships carrying the French Dauphin Guards Corps, escorted by the joint anti-piracy fleet, appeared outside the Tunisian port of Bizerte.

This is the northernmost port in Tunisia and an important stronghold for the Barbary pirates, or in other words, the base of the Tunisian Navy.

A small boat was lowered from the "Forward", the flagship of the United Fleet, and carried the officials responsible for negotiations to the Port of Bizerte.

He submitted a list of hundreds of people to local officials in Bizerte and requested that these pirates be handed over to the combined fleet within 24 hours. In addition, the pirate ships they used to rob must also be taken away by the combined fleet.

After 24 hours, the combined fleet will take matters into its own hands to capture the pirates who have not yet surrendered.

This list was provided by Hamoud Ali's nephew Haji. Everyone on it has committed murders and plunders of Europeans - this is a record for the Tunisian Navy, and there are many people inside them. Easy to find.

Not surprisingly, the Combined Fleet's request was rejected.

Most of the pirates on the list are local officers in Bizerte, and many of them are even very important throughout Tunisia. How could they be willing to "surrender themselves"?

On the fort of Bizerte Port, a Tunisian naval officer looked at the warships of the United Fleet that were vaguely visible in the distance, and said nervously:

"Why are people in Catholic countries so aggressive this time? What do they want?"

The other person nodded: "Yeah, there is no intention of discussing it at all."

According to their past experience, even if they accidentally damage merchant ships from France, Spain and other countries, they can cope with it by paying some compensation at most.

I have never encountered a situation like today, where warships pressed into the territory and issued an ultimatum as soon as they came up, demanding that people be surrendered immediately.

The officer next to him twirled his mustache and said:

"I think it was the Americans who made it happen. A few months ago, Pargal hijacked two of their ships and killed a dozen people."

"This time they seem to be serious." An officer held up a telescope and looked very worried. "I saw a heavy warship with 60 guns."

The man with the mustache sneered:

"Hmph, what are you afraid of? Even if it's a first-class ship, it will just wander around outside the port. We have a gun turret."

Another officer nodded and said:

"That's right. If the port's commercial exchanges stop, they will also suffer great losses. I think they will just lose money in the end, at most a little more."

However, no matter what the pirates think, the port of Bizerte still looks like a storm is coming. Unrelated merchant ships, especially European merchant ships, did not hesitate to weigh anchor and leave the place of trouble.

On the sea, in the officer room of the "Advance", Berthier looked at the official in charge of negotiations and said calmly:

"As expected, it seems that we can only catch those pirates ourselves."

Rear Admiral Cisneros, commander of the combined fleet, exhaled lightly and said:

"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, although I still don't agree with the attack on the port, I will still try my best to provide fire cover for your troops."

Although he received the navy's order to "strike the Barbary pirates with all my strength", no one had told him before that he would attack a large port with strong defense.

He always thought that he would take the funds, go around the Mediterranean for a few times, and catch some pirates to deal with the Americans.

After meeting with Berthier this time, the latter took out the order of the Minister of the Navy and told him that the goal this time was to seize the pirate base of Bizerte.

This order was naturally asked by Joseph to the Marquis of Castries. For the latter, the fight against pirates was a nod from the queen at the cabinet meeting, and the attack on the port was Berthier's army, which had nothing to do with him. The navy is just transporting soldiers and cooperating with the bombardment on the periphery. Why not do a favor for the crown prince?

Major General Cisneros continued:

"You know, we can't get too close to the artillery... So your legion may have to face the heavy artillery on it alone."

"Don't worry, general." Berthier nodded, "I have confidence in my people."

The landing tactics were arranged long ago. Berthier chatted with several naval officers for a while, then got up and returned to the transport ship. Tomorrow, he will lead the soldiers of the legion from there to attack the pirates' lair.

The next morning, 10 transport ships lined up outside the port of Bizerte. The soldiers of the Crown Prince's Guards Corps lined up on the deck, quietly watching the sailors hoist the landing boats into the water one after another.

On the "Stallion" transport ship, Berthier walked past the crowd and nodded seriously to each soldier. Then, he came to the front of the queue, pointed to the coastline not far away, and shouted:

"That is where we get supreme glory!

"Soldiers, I will work with you to crush those cowardly pirates with indestructible courage and faith, and let them accept God's punishment!

"Now, let the world see the fearlessness and bravery of French soldiers! To win your victory, just go forward bravely and crush everything!"

He took a deep breath, raised his arms, and shouted:

"For the king! For the prince! For glory!"

The soldiers suddenly burst into a thunderous roar:

"For the king! For the prince! For glory!"

The voice spread to several other transport ships, and the soldiers there also shouted:

"For the king! For the prince..."

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the first show of the Prince's Guard Corps after its establishment officially began.

The soldiers skillfully fell on the boat along the cable-this action, they had practiced hundreds of times before coming-then everyone picked up the oars and rowed hard.

Dozens of small boats rushed to the shore like arrows from a bow.

On the gun platform of the port, the lookout quickly discovered the movement on the sea and quickly reported to the officers.

More than a dozen Tunisian officers gathered together and discussed nervously - they had never expected that the fleet outside the port actually intended to land and fight.

"What should we do now? Should we fire at them?"

"Where is Ayas Pasha? Without his order, who knows what consequences will be caused by rashly firing at the French!"

Ayas was the highest officer in charge of guarding the port.

"He seems to be in his..." The officer almost said the words "those slave girls" and hurriedly changed his words, "I have sent someone to report to him."

It's not that Ayas was not on guard. After receiving the ultimatum yesterday, he was still a little nervous, but the traditional style of Ottoman officers [Note 1] made him return to his villa in the town to spend the night, which was several miles away from here.

The laxity of the Tunisian officers reduced the casualties of the Guards Corps. In the originally very dangerous beachhead process, the port's artillery had not fired a single shot, and the first group of landing boats had already rushed onto the beach.

Hundreds of steps away, the pirates could already see the obstacles they had set up. They were wooden stakes with one end sharpened and the other end inserted into the ground. There were four or five rows of them, almost occupying the entire beach.

Behind the obstacles, there were hundreds of Tunisian naval soldiers, holding various muskets, looking nervously at the coastline.

As the first batch of assault troops, Davout jumped off the boat, turned around and waved to the soldiers in the company, and said loudly:

"Quick! Get off the boat and line up! What are you waiting for? Have you forgotten how to run?"

As his flag bearer planted the flag on the beach, dozens of soldiers on several nearby boats quickly gathered towards him. The strict training of the Guards Corps on weekdays was fully demonstrated at this moment. In just ten minutes, they had lined up in three neat rows and began to load ammunition.

Several other soldiers carried a small cannon that was only knee-high and placed it on the left side of the queue. The people behind pried open the wooden box filled with shells and placed it in front of the cannon.

It was not until this time that the military order of Tunisian Commander Ayas was passed to the artillery. The Tunisian soldiers received the order "allowed to fire at the enemy" and hurriedly adjusted the angle of the artillery and aimed at the landing troops on the beach.

However, before they could fire, the "Forward" on the sea in the distance took the lead in launching an attack.

The 32-pound and 24-pound heavy guns spewed out fire and smoke one after another. Amid the huge roar, the black iron balls roared and hit the fort on the west side of the port.

Although the French Navy's training level is not as good as the British, they are still the first echelon in the whole of Europe.

At almost the maximum range, three of the twenty shells hit the wall of the fort directly. The violent impact smashed out large pieces of rubble and splashed them into the Mediterranean.

The fort was shaken by the bombardment, and the pirates on it panicked. Two people hurriedly lit the cannon. And more were scared and huddled in the corner.

One of the shells fired from the fort fell directly into the water, and the other hit more than 200 steps away from the Guards Corps, raising sand all over the sky.

On the side of the joint fleet, more warships joined the bombardment of the fort, and the sound of the guns suddenly became more intense.

Their efforts attracted most of the attention of the pirates. More than 70% of the artillery on the fort turned to the sea, trying to drive the fleet away.

On the side of the Guards Corps, the first batch of 8 companies that landed, that is, nearly 800 soldiers, have all completed the formation.

Under the officer's order to "start the attack", the gunner loaded the gunpowder and shells into the mortar, which is a small cannon that is only knee-high, and then ignited the primer.

With a burst of explosions, 5 shells with sparks drew several arcs and flew to the opposite pirate formation.

Although this kind of cannon is small, because of its very large caliber and the parabola it shoots, its range is quite considerable.

The shells fell three or four hundred steps away, and as the fuse burned out, they exploded one by one.

[Note 1] Most of the officers in Tunisia came from the Ottoman conquerors more than a hundred years ago. In order to preserve the purity of their bloodline, they tried not to intermarry with the local people in North Africa and always retained the Ottoman lifestyle and military customs.