Tunis City.
Inside the Ksar Hellal Palace, Bey Hamouda Ali listened to the battle reports from the front lines, his brows lifted in delight.
At first, when he learned that Eunice had truly returned to Tunisia, he was genuinely frightened for a while, but fortunately, his beloved Hafsa was exceptionally clever, predicting that Eunice would take the risk of launching a surprise attack on Kairouan.
Under his orders, Koja prepared in advance and indeed achieved a great victory, capturing and killing thousands of rebels.
Several officials in the great hall immediately offered up flattery:
“With the great Bey cleaning up these rebels, isn’t it just a piece of cake?”
“The Lord blesses the Bey, making his armies invincible in battle!”
“After eliminating Eunice, the people of Algiers won’t be able to extort our annual tributes anymore!”
After Ali returned to the harem in high spirits, eager to tell Hafsa about the great victory.
Contrary to his expectations, upon hearing the news, Hafsa appeared rather worried:
“Bey, a buffalo becomes ten times more ferocious when bitten by a lion, and it might even turn to gore the lion. Although you have defeated Eunice once, you absolutely mustn’t take him lightly. I feel that now, more than ever, we need to increase our troops and strive to eliminate the rebels as quickly as possible.”
Though Ali admired her for correctly guessing the situation of the rebels twice before, this time he was somewhat dismissive. According to the latest battle report sent back by Koja, Eunice should only have a little over 4,000 men left, and having suffered an immediate defeat after the rebellion, he shouldn’t be able to stir up any trouble.
He responded casually to his consort’s words, then continued with the music and dance.
However, Hafsa, as if possessed by the spirit of a prophet, was proven right in just five days when bad news came from the front lines.
Koja assembled an army of 13,000 men to besiege Eunice, but unexpectedly suffered heavily under the devastating fire of Eunice’s cannons.
The battle report stated that those cannons had an extremely long range and formidable power; after more than ten volleys, Koja’s vanguard suffered heavy casualties.
Moreover, Eunice had somehow acquired a large number of highly superior muskets, with incredibly fierce firepower. Under the cover of the cannons, it only took a few hours to shatter Koja’s encirclement, and they chased him all the way out of Chukri Valley. Enjoy exclusive content from empire
After this battle, Koja’s Guard no longer dared to confront Eunice. Currently, Koja could only use Kairouan Fortress to stand off against Eunice.
When Hamoud Ali looked towards Hafsa this time, all he felt was admiration, and he immediately followed her advice, dispatching 3,000 garrison troops from Tunis City to Kairouan, and allocating 20,000 riyals to Koja for military expenses.
At the front of Kairouan Fortress, Eunice, who had just won a battle, also had a grave expression on his face.
A week ago, just as the French advisor had said, a French transport ship arrived at the Port of Sfax, bringing along 2,000 Chaleville flintlock guns, 4 six-pound cannons, and 15,000 ducat gold coins.
He quickly reorganized his army with these weapons and money, then cleanly shattered Koja’s siege, driving Koja into the Kairouan Fortress.
However, faced with the strong fortress and the tens of thousands of Tunisian Guards, he too was vexed.
If he had more gunpowder and cannonballs, he would have been fully confident in taking down the fortress or, at the very least, forcing the defenders not to show their heads so he could bypass the place and march straight to Sousse.
But now he was left with only four carts of ammunition, not nearly enough to bombard the fortress, and he had no idea when the French would deliver the next supply.
Several days later, Hamoud Ali’s reinforcements arrived at Kairouan before Eunice. Koja immediately led his troops in another fierce attack on Eunice’s army…
While Koja and Eunice were engaged in a tug-of-war, more than ten transport ships carrying the French Crown Prince’s Guard Corps, escorted by the Combined Fleet to strike against pirates, appeared outside the Bizerte Port of Tunisia.
This was the northernmost port of Tunisia and an important stronghold of the Barbary pirates, or rather, the base of the Tunisian Navy.
A small boat was lowered from the flagship “Advance” of the Combined Fleet, carrying an official in charge of negotiations, who boarded the Bizerte Port.
He submitted a list containing hundreds of names to the local authorities of Bizerte, demanding that these pirates be handed over to the Combined Fleet within 24 hours. Furthermore, their pirate ships used for plundering also had to be taken away by the Combined Fleet.
After 24 hours, the Combined Fleet would take matters into their own hands and capture any pirates who had not yet surrendered.
The list was provided by Haji, the nephew of Hamouda Ali; every person listed had committed murders and plundered Europeans—a matter of military achievements for the Tunisian Navy, which their inner circles could easily track.
Unsurprisingly, the demands of the Combined Fleet were refused.
The pirates listed were mostly military officers from Bizerte, and many of them carried significant clout throughout Tunisia. How could they possibly be willing to “surrender themselves”?
On the gun decks of the Bizerte Port, a Tunisian Navy officer looked towards the barely visible warships of the Combined Fleet in the distance and said nervously:
“Why are the people from Catholic countries making such a grandiose fuss this time? What do they really want?”
Another agreed, “Yeah, there’s not even the slightest hint of negotiation.”
According to their past experiences, even if they accidentally harmed French or Spanish merchant ships, settling the matter with some compensation was usually enough.
They had never faced a situation like today’s, with warships bearing down and an ultimatum demanding immediate surrender of people.
The officer stroked his mustache and said:
“I think the Americans must have had a hand in this. A few months back Pargale captured two of their ships and killed over a dozen people.”