In Joseph’s North Africa strategy, he never planned on using the French Army to force his way through from start to finish.
Not only would that approach heavily deplete the troops and cost a significant amount, it would also easily provoke fierce resistance from local forces in North Africa.
Countless examples from later generations show that defeating the enemy’s main force is often not the difficult part; the real headache starts when cleaning up scattered local militias. For instance, a future world superpower managed to defeat Atta in just over ten days, but then spent 2 trillion US dollars over more than a decade fighting guerrilla groups, and still lost in the end.
Therefore, the best method was still to mobilize the local forces in North Africa to work for oneself, and have a small contingent of elite French forces act as a counterbalance to influence the final victory or defeat.
The diplomats of France and the Police Affairs Department had already been working towards this goal in Algiers for quite some time.
Find your next adventure on empire
…
Joseph’s carriage was half a mile away from the Paris Police Academy’s training field when he heard the distant sound of bugles.
A troop of police academy students, dressed in smart military uniforms, came running in two columns. Every two meters, the last man in line would stop. Soon, from the entrance of the training field to beside Joseph’s carriage, two straight walls of people were formed.
With a loud command from an officer, both columns of police academy students turned around, lowering their rifles with the butts nearly touching the ground, creating a resounding “clack.”
The carriage passed between the two rows of students. Joseph nodded in satisfaction at the police academy students on both sides. Just from the welcoming formation, one could see the training quality of these students. Over hundreds of meters, the formation was straight, and the movements were uniform; this by today’s European standards was definitely considered an elite force.
Several neat squadrons had already been arranged on the training field.
Nearly a thousand senior students from the first enrollment were lined up at the front. Behind them were the second batch of new students, more numerous but less organized. Joseph had already seen Frient’s report; the second enrollment of the police academy had recruited as many as 3,000 students.
This was possible because the police academy provided food and lodging, and it was fully open to civilians, with scholarships available for those with excellent grades. Many children from civilian families living far from Paris, upon learning of the favorable conditions at the police academy, would even travel half a month’s journey to register.
Of course, what was most important was that Joseph now had some money to spend, able to afford so many students—the cost of their brand-new full military uniforms alone exceeded 120 livres. And to think, the French treasury hadn’t allocated a single denier to the Paris Police Academy.
Behind the second batch of students, there were over a thousand soldiers dressed in somewhat older uniforms and of an older average age. They were Bertier’s Corps, who had come to attend the ceremony.
Joseph stepped out of the carriage, surrounded by important figures like Frient and Bertier, and made his way to the center of the reviewing stand, raising his hand in acknowledgment to the students and soldiers on the field.
Immediately, the thousands on the training field stood to attention with chests out, raising their hats in salute, and a thunderous shout erupted: “Long live the King! Long live the Crown Prince!”
Joseph smiled and returned the salute with his hat before delivering a customary speech as the school principal. Such speeches would be made here at least once each year from now on.
Afterward, each squadron of students and soldiers marched past the reviewing stand in turn, inspected by the Crown Prince.
Behind Joseph, the newly appointed Minister of Industry, Mirabeau, who had been invited to observe, was profoundly shocked as he watched the proud and well-trained squadrons before him.
For the past few days, he had been perplexed as to why the Crown Prince wanted him to attend the police academy’s new student induction ceremony. Only now did he finally understand that the Crown Prince was showcasing his own power—these were no mere police academy students; this was the Crown Prince’s own army!
Initially, he had only thought the young Crown Prince was highly knowledgeable about industrial development and could bring prosperity and hope to France’s industrial sector.
Now, he realized that the Crown Prince was indeed a genius monarch—advancing industrial development while guarding against potential famine, having integrated a large number of banks recently, and now, he had formed a powerful army here.
What was most important was that the Crown Prince had managed to do all this without anyone realizing it!
Mirabeau inwardly sighed: perhaps in a few years, France would welcome a king as great as the Sun King. No, even more dazzling!
The resonant shouts of the squadrons interrupted Mirabeau’s thoughts. He looked towards the training field, only to notice that the soldiers were carrying rifles that were very peculiar, none of which were any model produced by Charleville—he was passionate about hunting and had done considerable research on common firearms.
So, he leaned in and quietly asked the Director of Police Services beside him, “Viscount Besancon, do you know what kind of guns they’re using? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.”
The other immediately replied, “Those are the Auguste Model 1788 Caplock Guns. The Royal Armory, which was personally overseen by His Majesty, recently started manufacturing them.”
The Royal Armory next to the Palace of Versailles and the armory in Saint-Etienne were both on the right track, showing initial success with standardized production. If operating at full capacity, the two factories could manufacture over 2,000 caplock guns per month.
This was even with Joseph instructing the Saint-Etienne location to divert much of its effort into researching cannon casting, otherwise, production numbers could be even higher.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of Lavoisier, the Royal Gunpowder Bureau had already mastered the preparation of fulminate mercury, easily producing 30,000 copper caps per month.
With the production capacity of these two institutions, the Paris Police Academy and Bertier’s Corps had already been fully equipped with new caplock guns, and routine shooting training was conducted with these as the standard.