Chapter 1098: Heaven Will Spare No One

When Napoleon decided to abandon his grand ambition to conquer the whole of Europe, Talleyrand, a first-class politician with superb political skills, had returned to the embrace of Napoleon's camp. He was still the pillar of the country that Napoleon relied on deeply.

When Britain and France joined forces, although Britain and France were the center of the entire talks, the interests of Prussia, Austria and Russia could not be ignored. This was not the previous Sixth Anti-French Alliance Agreement, which was just a short-term armistice agreement. Now this is an order to terminate the war.

Talleyrand's work satisfied Napoleon. He summarized a focus order from countless puzzling intelligence. The core of this order was only two points, preventing Russia from completely annexing Poland and destroying Prussia's plan to swallow Saxony.

In terms of the interests of northern Italy, France could make some concessions to Austria; on the Iberian Peninsula, France had met all the requirements of London. The British have no land claims on the European continent. Their traditional policy in Europe is to make the major powers on the European continent equal and opposed to each other so that they can play the role of arbitrator and profit from it; at the same time, they are particularly opposed to the excessive expansion of Russia in Northern Europe and Prussia in Central Europe.

Therefore, Talleyrand approached Britain before the Russian envoy arrived. The British Foreign Secretary rushed to Paris to talk with Talleyrand and agreed to France's plan. The British-French talks also became an important factor in Talleyrand's diplomatic success again later.

After Talleyrand formed the delegation, he set about selecting a housewife who could host his salon in Vienna, the venue of the talks. According to European customs, many major events are decided at banquets and dances. Therefore, this housewife must be of noble birth, capable, beautiful, and able to assist him in his work smoothly. In theory, she should of course be his wife. But Talleyrand's legitimate wife was obviously not qualified for this matter. She was scolded by Talleyrand as old and stupid and incompetent. So, Talleyrand ignored public opinion and chose his niece-in-law, Mrs. Dorothea Berger-Dino. Dorothea was only 30 years old, and she had all the advantages. She was dissatisfied with her marriage because of her husband's gambling and incompetence. She agreed to her uncle's request. From then on, Talleyrand and his wife began to live separately, and Dorothea became the mistress of Talleyrand's family until his death.

Do you think it's ridiculous? But this is Talleyrand. He has no affection for his family, and he doesn't cherish the ancient honor of his family at all.

Talleyrand was born in an old aristocratic family in Paris. His ancestors had been court nobles since the establishment of the French Capetian dynasty in the 10th century. In terms of blood, his father and King Louis XVI are cousins!

But Talleyrand, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, had a very unfortunate childhood. It was not that both parents lived under the roof of others, nor that his biological mother died and his stepmother was vicious, but that he met a pair of rare parents.

His parents followed the lifestyle of the French aristocracy at that time, busy with social activities all day long, and only cared about their own pleasure. The only love they had was also poured into Talleyrand's brother. Soon after Talleyrand was born, he was fostered in the home of a nanny in the suburbs of Paris. When he was two years old, he fell from a high cabinet and injured his right foot. After several months, his eccentric parents learned about this, but by then the disability had already occurred, and he became a lame man who could only walk with crutches for the rest of his life. From then on, his parents disliked him even more.

At the age of four, he was fostered in the home of a relative, Madame Salle, in another province, and his parents rarely took him home. Two years later, the servant sent him directly from Madame Salle to a boarding school in Paris - this eccentric pair of parents did not think that they should let the child go home to see it first! The six-year-old Talleyrand took a seventeen-day post carriage to a strange new world, alone and helpless, with no relatives, and could only miss Madame Salle, the only one who loved him. The desolation and fear at that time made him unforgettable for life.

Six-year-old Talleyrand lived in school, visited his parents only once a week, and rarely stayed at home overnight. Six years later, he contracted smallpox again. His parents neither visited him nor took him home to recuperate. They only asked the servants to send him to the nanny's house, and then sent him back to school after he recovered. Such life experiences made Talleyrand develop and grow resentment towards his parents and family.

It should be said that this period of childhood and youth had an important influence on the formation of Talleyrand's cold, ruthless, arrogant and self-confident character in the future.

At the age of fifteen, Charles graduated from high school, and his parents sent him to the Saint-Sulpice Seminary without discussing it with him.

Charles's elder brother died in childhood, so Charles had become the eldest son, but his parents deprived him of the eldest son's inheritance right to inherit the title and property, and insisted on making him a priest. At that time, most aristocratic young people pursued serving as glorious officers or civil servants with great benefits, but Charles could not be an officer because of his disabled right foot, and his parents were unwilling to pay for him to buy a civil servant, so being a priest became his only way out. But no one knew his inner resentment, nor would they take his dissatisfaction seriously. How much Talleyrand wanted to live the life of pleasure of secular aristocrats.

Such an experience of growing up made Talleyrand a rebellious priest and a revolutionary bishop, which was not unexpected. And it was also normal that Talleyrand developed the habit of loving money and greed due to the same childhood experience.

In 1774, Charles Maurice Talleyrand graduated from the seminary. This year happened to be the day when Louis XVI ascended the throne. He participated in the coronation ceremony. After the ceremony, Louis XVI rewarded Talleyrand with the position of abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims, with an annual salary of 18,000 livres.

Two years later, Talleyrand studied at the seminary of the University of Paris for another two years. After graduation, he continued to be the dean. However, the dean was never a devout believer in God, but a bohemian atheist and liberal. He personally visited the home of the old apostate Voltaire and even asked for the blessing of the 84-year-old man.

Talleyrand also ignored his status and lived a secular aristocratic life of debauchery. Because the position of dean was a good job that only paid but did not do anything, he had plenty of time. He bought a comfortable little house in Paris, lived alternately between Reims and Paris, drank and gambled, and went out to have sex. The salary was not enough for his expenses, so he went to the stock exchange to speculate and made a lot of money. His greed and meanness became very famous from then on.

But such a person became one of the most shining stars in French politics during the twenty years when the Great Revolution swept France.

After several twists and turns in his relationship with Napoleon, the greedy and politically skilled Talleyrand once again returned to Napoleon's camp and once again became a shining star in French politics. Prime Minister, this is the throne that Talleyrand, who was in his honeymoon with Napoleon, could not sit on.

"The crown of the earth has fallen from the hands of the white people." Dorothea sighed. "The rise of the Chinese will be like the Mongols six hundred years ago. They are so powerful that the entire monotheistic world despairs. I think the Yellow Peril will once again sweep the Western world."

"Maybe there will be such a day." Talleyrand's face flashed with fatigue. He has always been a "rational" person. He believes that France has no power to conquer all Europeans and that Napoleon's ambitions will only plunge France into an endless abyss. He regards Napoleon, the financial sponsor, as a destroyer of French interests, and is willing to sell out state secrets and interests to defeat Napoleon.

Then compare Europe with today's China. The whole of Europe does not even have most of China's mainland. Whether it is population, army, wealth, or future potential, China has left Europe far behind. So Talleyrand agreed with the sudden outbreak of the East-West War, because he believed that the longer the time dragged on, the stronger China would be, and the gap between Europe and China would become larger. So it is better to fight early than late.

"But as long as Europe is still alive, America will not fall. The whole of Europe will not allow Americans to fall. Six million Americans are the most important trump card for Europe to balance China's global strategy."

If the Chinese have a firm foothold on the east coast of North America, their large fleet can directly pressure Europe across the Atlantic. The distance from the Atlantic to Europe is much shorter and more convenient than the distance from mainland China to Europe.

Three hundred years ago, Europeans could sail to America in a boat of hundreds of tons and turned America into their new continent, so you can imagine how close the connection between the two would be. Therefore, for the sake of Europe's security, America must stand on the east coast of North America.

"Then there will be bloodshed in Europe." Dorothea was chosen by Talleyrand and also worked part-time as Talleyrand's secretary. She had a good understanding of the situation in Europe and the world. She knew very well what kind of strength China had and what kind of situation the Lighthouse Country had. She had no confidence that the United States could survive Chen Han's attack.

...

The temperature in Antarctica has gone from cool to cold. At most, the temperature here will drop to minus ten degrees Celsius, and then in the next half a month, the temperature of minus twenty degrees Celsius will no longer be a fantasy.

Therefore, the advance fleet that had been speeding on the sea for a day encountered heavy fog. Fog will also appear on the sea and the ocean.

Of course, the appearance of fog is not unlucky. What is unlucky is that Chen Huacheng's Silver Shark saw a huge fleet sailing on the sea not far away as soon as the fog dissipated.

The latter was not facing the Silver Shark directly, and the two sides were less than one nautical mile apart.

"Damn it. Back off, back off. Turn around quickly..."

The five motor sailing ships did not need Chen Huacheng to send out command signals. After seeing the main fleet of the Europeans, the sailors on the ships did not need the lookout's alarm and had already begun to turn the rudder and sail and turn around to run south.

If the two sides were five kilometers apart, the motor sailing ships could easily complete the turning and turning, and the sailing ships behind them could not catch up with them, but they were less than one nautical mile apart, about three li.

At the same time that Chen Huacheng and his men sensed the danger, the Europeans also saw the opportunity to take advantage. At a distance of less than one nautical mile, before the Chinese turned around and pulled the distance between the warships on both sides far enough, they definitely had enough time to hit their ships with shells. Because the Europeans only needed to deflect the sailing warships, they did not need to turn their heads.

Why did the sailing warships have the title of battleship?

One of the main reasons is that they are not convenient to turn around. Once they have identified a direction, even if there are gunfire and rain of bullets in front, they can only rush forward. The sailing warship can only turn 60 degrees left and right during the voyage, which allows them to charge directly without slowing down.

Michael Hughes must not understand Chinese culture very well, otherwise he would not just stand on the Surut and look at the Silver Shark with hatred, but should say in a very relieved tone: It's not that there is no retribution, it's just that the time has not come. Or, good and evil will eventually be rewarded, and the law of heaven will be good. If you don't believe it, look up, and the heaven will spare no one.

This is more relieved, isn't it?

His previous ship, the South Lanark, was not in this fleet, but returned to the Falkland Islands. One of the masts of the latter was broken, and the side of the ship was scarred, with dozens of holes. The South Lanark had to return to the Falkland Islands for repairs.

But Michael Hughes himself did not return to the Falkland Islands. As a staff officer of the advance fleet, he boarded the Surut.

Now the Surut is leading the way and rushing straight to the Silver Shark. Michael Hughes will never forget the appearance of the Silver Shark. After the South Lanark escaped the shadow of death in the night yesterday evening, he thought about revenge all the time.

God took pity on them, and the Chinese came to the door themselves. Michael Hughes felt that this was simply a gift from God.

If it weren't for the fleet's quick action, he wouldn't have been able to run into the main force of the fleet last night, and now he wouldn't have run into the Chinese; and if it weren't for the fog, the Chinese would have spotted them from a distance, and then they would have calmly turned around, and it would have been difficult for the sailing warships to catch up with them.

But now the Chinese are right next to them, and they only need to open their mouths wide to bite them. If it weren't God's gift, what else could it be?

The Europeans didn't hide their intentions at all. At this time, they didn't care about the T-head. As long as they pounced on and caught the other party, they could easily kill Chen Huacheng.

The watchtower found that the dark muzzle on the side of the European warship that was closest to the front was spewing out gunpowder and flames.

When the Surut turned, it perfectly drew a curved arc on the sea. During this period, the right side of the Surut was just aimed at the direction of the Silver Shark, and at this time, the Silver Shark also turned around, and part of the ship's firepower was aimed at the enemy ship.

"General, the red-haired man is firing!" A sailor hurriedly reported to Chen Huacheng. At this time, Zhang Bao was no longer at the command desk. The master gunner of the Chen Han Navy had taken over all the firepower, because the gunner on the Silver Shark was injured before.