I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1004 High-tech French Army (two chapters in one, please give me double monthly tickets)
The sky was clear and there was not a breath of wind. The world was as quiet as an oil painting.

On the parade ground of the Paris Army Academy, Joseph and dozens of officers looked up and stared at the small gray dot in the air.

Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier introduced attentively: "Your Highness, later we found that silk is not only expensive, but also not very airtight.

“After much trial and error, we chose to glue paper and silk together to make the airbags, which worked really well.

"Hot air balloons are now much stronger and 35% lighter than before."

Yes, what was floating in the sky at that moment was a hot air balloon, and it was a military version that had undergone many improvements.

Ten years earlier, the Montgolfier brothers from southern France invented the world's first hot air balloon and demonstrated it at the Palace of Versailles.

However, the hot air balloons at that time used paper to make the airbags and were supported by linen ropes on the outside. They were extremely difficult to unfold during use and were easily damaged.

At that time, the French military conducted an assessment and believed that it did not meet military standards, so it ignored it.

Later, because of the Shap signal tower incident, the General Staff dug out and sorted out all the high-tech military equipment, and the hot air balloon project was able to see the light of day again.

After receiving a grant of 7000 francs, the Montgolfier brothers finally completed the technical improvements according to the military's requirements. Today is the first technical acceptance.

A technical officer from the General Staff asked, "How do you solve the problem of preventing fires?"

Michel, the elder brother, immediately said proudly: "Use alum, sir. We soak the entrance and the inside of the airbag with alum, which can effectively prevent them from being ignited by sparks."

The hot air balloon had already floated to a height of four or five hundred meters, and was hovering there under the pull of the mooring rope.

Then, a soldier standing under the hot air balloon looked at the basket of the hot air balloon through a telescope and chanted: "d, e, u, x..."

另一名士兵则用笔快速记录，不到两分钟后，他便举起手中的纸，高声道：“2.2公里外。方向1点零5分22秒。高度估算+55米。12磅炮3门。士兵70余名。”

A staff officer nodded excitedly to Joseph and said, "Absolutely correct, Your Highness."

The hot air balloon accurately reported the situation at the shooting range 2.2 kilometers away.

The officers around immediately looked at each other excitedly, nodded, and applauded.

You have to know that in this era, if you want to know the movements of enemy troops several kilometers away, you can only send cavalry for reconnaissance.

If there is no enemy interception, it will take the cavalry at least an hour to make the round trip.

Using a hot air balloon only takes two minutes!

This is just one of the advantages of hot air balloons.

Hindered by the terrain, the cavalry could only observe the general situation of the enemy, and a lot of information had to be guessed based on experience.

The hot air balloon can give you a commanding view from high above, allowing you to see every soldier clearly.

In addition, the cavalry had to report back after taking a look, while the hot air balloon could keep an eye on the enemy in the sky.

It can be imagined that in future wars, the enemy was still cautiously moving and deploying several kilometers away, and the French side even saw that they were eating pickled meat or salted radishes for lunch.

It’s just like opening the “full map” in a game. How can you defeat the enemy?
Michelle Montgolfier continued to show off, “Your Highness, according to our previous tests, when the weather is good, we can even see people 10 kilometers away.”

"You have created a great invention." Joseph nodded with satisfaction, and then thought of the process of launching a hot air balloon before - more than twenty people stretched the balloon, and then ignited it, allowing hot air to flow into the entrance of the airbag.

By the time the balloon took off, more than two hours had passed.

On the battlefield, such a long time might have meant missing the opportunity to fight.

"It's just that the release time is still a bit too long." He looked at Big Meng Gefei, "I hope you can control the release time to within one hour. At the same time, the recovery time should not exceed half an hour."

"This..." Big Meng Gefei was stunned. The process of collecting and releasing balloons was fixed and there was basically nothing that could be improved.

But he still gritted his teeth, bowed and said: "I will definitely satisfy you, Your Highness."

Joseph caught a glimpse of his embarrassment, and recalling some designs of later generations, he suggested: "You can design a special hot air balloon retracting and launching vehicle.

"A long foldable wooden pole is installed on the car, and the folded hot air balloon is hoisted on it.

"When you need to use the balloon, you can fold the wooden pole for storage and then pull it open, and the balloon will expand immediately."

The eyes of the Menggofi brothers suddenly lit up.

The deflated hot air balloon is a huge puddle. It takes a while to find the inflation port, and it takes another ten minutes to flatten it.

According to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's method, inflation can begin immediately after the wooden pole is extended.

Joseph continued, "Alternatively, you can install a pedal blower on the vehicle. When you release it, use it to blow towards the flame, and the hot air will flow into the airbag faster.

“You could even try bringing a small steam machine and doing pressurized inflation.

"Also, try to reduce the size of the hot air balloon. A smaller balloon can be filled faster..."

As he was speaking, he suddenly saw the hot air balloon in the distance begin to slowly descend.

He tilted his head and asked Berthier with some confusion: "Is the test over?"

The Chief of Staff said hurriedly, "Not yet, Your Highness. The hot air balloon is running low on fuel, so we need to land first to refill it."

Joseph frowned: "How long did we fly just now?"

A staff officer nearby glanced at his pocket watch and said, "32 minutes, Your Highness."

"So short a time?"

Big Meng Gefei hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, this is just a test balloon. We can make it bigger in the future so that it can carry more fuel."

Little Meng Gefei added in a low voice: "But that will make the inflation time longer when flying..."

Joseph sighed, "What fuel are you using?"

"A mixture of straw and wool, your highness."

Joseph thought to himself, no wonder it couldn’t fly for long. How much heat could burning this thing generate?

Later hot air balloons seem to use propane or liquefied natural gas as fuel.

Well, I can’t figure it out right now, so I’ll skip it.

The next step is to use kerosene... Currently, France's coal tar industry is able to refine kerosene, but it is still in the laboratory process stage, with extremely low output and extremely high cost.

Joseph finally said helplessly: "Then let's use alcohol first."

Although the calorific value of alcohol is not as high as kerosene, it is definitely much higher than straw, so it should allow the hot air balloon to float longer.

But alcohol is not cheap. Besides, if you bring a few barrels of alcohol to the battlefield, there is no guarantee that some soldiers will not steal some.

Well, let’s deal with it this way for now. We need to get the kerosene as soon as possible.

Not only can it provide fuel for hot air balloons, but kerosene lamps are also a very profitable industry. The famous Mobil Company in later generations first relied on kerosene lamps to establish its position as a petrochemical giant.

But Lavoisier is still running a fertilizer factory in the Palatinate, so who can be entrusted with this task?

Joseph suddenly remembered the later concept of "economic benefits driving technological innovation".

France has so many chemists and chemical factories. If we give them enough material incentives, we might get unexpected surprises.

He took out his notebook and wrote down the words "Tender for kerosene refining technology".

Afterwards, Joseph discussed with staff officers such as Berthier how to equip and use hot air balloons in the military.

It was initially decided that each infantry division would be equipped with three hot air balloons, which would be operated by engineers.

A staff officer said with some regret: "It would be great if each regiment could be equipped with such a powerful reconnaissance tool."

Berthier nodded: "In fact, it would be great if the intelligence gathered by the hot air balloon could be quickly transmitted to every officer, just like the Sharp signal machine."

The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Upon hearing this, Joseph couldn't help but have an idea in his mind - yes, if each regiment is equipped with a Sharp signal machine, wouldn't the command efficiency be increased by more than ten times?
Let engineers bring prefabricated panels to quickly build signal towers on the battlefield?

It doesn't seem realistic.

Even if the engineers were exhausted, it would take at least half a day to build a simple signal tower. Even if it was built, the battlefield situation could change rapidly, and the troops might move to other places before they could use it. The signal tower couldn't move with them...

Joseph suddenly thought of the folding aerial work vehicle of later generations - using an articulated X-shaped bracket to raise the platform more than ten meters in the air. Two people stood on it, one sending signals and the other observing with a telescope. Isn't this a small-scale Sharp signal tower?
At the same time, this thing can be placed on a carriage and towed around.

Although a platform about ten meters high certainly does not have a longer observation distance than a fixed signal tower, it is still high enough to exceed the observation distance of most trees and communicate with each other at a distance of two or three kilometers.

Generally speaking, in a battle involving tens of thousands of people, the battlefield is only about ten kilometers wide, and three or four "Sharp Signal Vehicles" are enough to span the entire battlefield.

By then, the French commander-in-chief's orders would only take three to five minutes to reach all middle-level officers. At the same time, the commander would be able to quickly grasp the detailed status of each corps.

This efficiency is several orders of magnitude higher than the current practice of relying on messengers to run around on horseback to give orders!
Joseph's thoughts continued.

If a transceiver of the Sharp signal tower is also set up on a hot air balloon, and then one or two hot air balloons are raised between the fixed signal tower and the front line, but not too high, then the communications between the front and rear can be connected.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it makes up for the blind spot of the "last few dozen kilometers" of the Shap signal tower.

If this can be achieved, orders from Paris will be in the hands of front-line commanders within two hours, and vice versa.

Continue to extend.

Two war zones that are far apart, such as Italy and the Southern Netherlands, can also use Paris as an information transit station to coordinate combat deployments.

And this process may take less than 4 hours.

What is the concept of 4 hours?
For an army of 100,000 men, it might take this long for the commander-in-chief's orders to be transmitted to the legions on both wings!
As someone who had understood the art of warfare in later generations, Joseph knew well how much impact the efficiency of information transmission had on the combat effectiveness of the army.

An information-efficient army beating an inefficient army is like an agile monkey beating a sloth.

Before the command from the sloth's brain could reach its arms, the monkey had already punched it several times and then dodged.

Therefore, all countries in later generations have invested huge amounts of money in military informatization, and even the degree of informatization has become the primary criterion for judging military strength.

Joseph suddenly realized that once everything from hot air balloons to mobile signal towers was developed, the French army would be able to crush all European armies in all aspects, from early warning to reconnaissance, from command transmission to coordination between corps, from information sharing to identification of friend or foe.

Isn’t this equivalent to the informationized army of this era?

Add to that the training level and morale of the French direct army corps, and from now on, not to mention fighting with a few against a large number, even fighting one against two will not be impossible!

Joseph took a deep breath and thought to himself: I didn’t expect that the biggest improvement of this military reform would be here!

He immediately called all staff officers to the conference hall of the military academy and explained to them his idea of ​​forming an "informationized" army.

The meeting lasted until after six o'clock in the afternoon. When Joseph heard the staff officers' stomachs rumbling in protest from time to time, he announced a recess and continued the discussion at the General Staff Headquarters the next day.

He walked out of the conference hall tiredly and was about to go to the military academy cafeteria when he saw Talleyrand standing outside the door, having obviously been waiting for a long time.

"Why are you here? Is there something urgent?"

The Foreign Minister hurried forward a few steps, bowed, and then whispered, "Your Highness, I just received the news this afternoon. William II passed away the day before yesterday."

Joseph frowned immediately.

He remembered that in history, William II seemed to die two years later, so how come it suddenly happened earlier?
He looked at Talleyrand: "Please tell me the details."

"Yes, Your Highness." Talleyrand followed the Crown Prince, leaning on his cane, "Karl Ludwig defeated the Prussian army in Silesia, defeated the two armies of Taunchien and Melun, and surrounded the main force of Prince Hohenlohe in Liegnitz.

"After receiving the news, William II suffered convulsions and coma, and only a few hours later, he stopped breathing.

"At present, William III is being crowned. Wilhelmine has been sent to a convent. Prince Heinrich is temporarily in charge of Prussian politics."

Joseph walked into the military academy cafeteria, found a seat and sat down, motioning Talleyrand to sit opposite him: "So, how does Potsdam plan to deal with the war in Silesia?"

"It is said that Baron Friedrich has gone to London to seek mediation from the British. Prince Heinrich's attitude should be inclined to a quick ceasefire." Talleyrand said, "You know, at present, Prussia is no longer able to continue the war, either financially or militarily."

Joseph frowned immediately.

It was thought that Prussia could fight Austria for several years, but unexpectedly, William II died suddenly. Judging from his symptoms, it was probably a stroke or heart attack after being stimulated.

Now, Prussia has encountered a sudden change and is likely to surrender to Austria.

The latter was even able to gain more land in Silesia, thereby quickly recovering the national strength lost due to the failure of the anti-French alliance.

As this situation increases, Austria's dominance in the German region will be greatly enhanced.

This is definitely not good news for France.

(End of this chapter)