I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1008: Wind Spear

When Leo heard the Frenchman mention his most glorious battle record, he immediately raised his head excitedly: "Fighting against the Prussian army with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a memory I will never forget.

"I swear, as long as I am alive, no one will ever be able to hand over Liegnitz to the Prussians!"

Talleyrand's face was full of disappointment: "You can't just focus on Liegnitz."

"Which...what do you mean?"

Talleyrand leaned forward. "Breslau, Glogow, and all Silesia."

Leo's pupils shrank suddenly, and his head dropped a little: "No, no, this will trigger a large-scale war."

Talleyrand patiently analyzed for him: "Right now, the Prussians have less than 20,000 mobile troops left, almost all of which are used to defend Glogau. And the Breslau Fortress cannot get supplies and may be breached at any time.

"Archduke Karl's morale is at an all-time high as he continues to win one victory after another. I bet the soldiers of the Royal Moravian Regiment even want to march straight to Berlin.

“So, as long as we act tough enough, the young king of Prussia who has just come to power will definitely choose to surrender.

"The Empire will easily gain all of Silesian territory south of Glogau."

Leo still looked listless: "You are right, we do have the advantage militarily, but the Prussians will definitely ask Britain for help..."

Talleyrand smiled disdainfully: "The main force of the British army is almost all tied up in the Iberian Peninsula and has no time to take care of the situation in Silesia.

"Besides, even if the Prussians can seek foreign aid, Austria can do the same."

Leo instantly raised his eyes to look at him.

Talleyrand smiled and nodded: "Yes, France will fully support you in taking back Silesia. This is what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has always advocated."

Leo's expression was obviously moved.

Prussia is now extremely weak. If France and Austria join forces, William III will definitely not have the courage to continue fighting.

By then, even if it were impossible to obtain all the areas south of Glogau, it should be possible to obtain the Silesian land west of the Oder River - that was more than twice the size of the Liegnitz province.

Talleyrand glanced at him and continued, "Once Potsdam accepts the armistice terms, I think you, as the primary contributor to the implementation of this strategy, will definitely be awarded the title of prince."

Leo's heartbeat quickened, but he was still a little worried and said, "Well, I want to know what kind of support Your Highness has decided to provide us?"

Talleyrand smiled like an old fox: "Well, a low-interest loan. And weapons, at least 20,000 flintlock rifles, and publicly acknowledge that all of Silesia belongs to Austria."

Leo laughed too.

France's aid would allow Austria to add another sizable army, as well as the most important diplomatic support, which was enough to overwhelm the Prussians.

He immediately shouted: "You are right. Now is the best time to take back Silesia!
"I will advise His Majesty the King that he will never accept an armistice until Silesia is completely recovered!"

He looked at Talleyrand again: "So, what will the Empire give in return for your generous assistance?"

This is also political common sense. How can there be free support between countries?

Talleyrand immediately said: "His Royal Highness the Dauphin hopes that His Majesty the Emperor will recognize Spain's legitimate rule over the entire Iberian Peninsula."

Leo nodded silently. This was to isolate Britain to the greatest extent possible in the Mediterranean region, which was very much in line with France's core strategy.

"I will certainly recommend it to your Majesty." Talleyrand raised his hand: "Oh, I have one more small request."

"Please tell me."

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince likes the 'Spear of Wind' very much, so he will be very happy if he can obtain the manufacturing technology of this spear."

The "wind gun" he mentioned is the Girandoni air rifle, a new weapon designed by Italian-Austrian firearms master Bartolomeo Girandoni, which is similar in appearance to a flintlock rifle and uses a compressed air tank in the buttstock to propel the bullet to fire.

After more than ten years of secret research and development and improvements, Austria has begun to form an "air gun corps" in recent years, equipped with 500 air guns.

Although the power of this new gun is slightly inferior to that of the flintlock rifle, its advantages are extremely obvious.

The first is the firing speed. The magazine has a capacity of 20 rounds, and all of them can be fired within half a minute.

Secondly, it is not affected by the weather, and shooting can still be carried out as usual even in heavy rain.

Finally, when it is fired, no smoke or flame is produced, and the sound is extremely small, making it convenient for the army to carry out sneak attacks and ambushes.

Therefore, this gun is the next generation weapon that the Austrian Royal Military Committee attaches great importance to.

Of course, the reason why Joseph wanted this thing was not because of its advanced technology and wanted to equip the French army.

On the contrary, he knew very well that although this gun looked sharp, it was actually an expensive piece of waste.

The main reason is that the processing precision of this era cannot support the requirements of air guns, and the precision valves and gas tanks are extremely easy to be damaged.

According to later records, nearly half of the "Wind Spears" would leak air during battle.

In addition, after firing 30 times, this type of gun needs to be inflated with an air pump 1500 times to inflate the gas tank, and this process takes about 20 minutes.

Well, even if all the enemies on the opposite side are sloths, this amount of time is enough to completely wipe out the Wind Lance Corps.

Of course, the clever Mr. Kiranduni came up with a solution, which was to prepare a large number of filled gas tanks in advance, and immediately use them for replacement after the soldiers finished firing.

It takes less than two minutes to change it, and then you can immediately turn back into a "superman" who can fire 20 rounds in half a minute.

However, ideals are full, but reality is skinny.

Heavy gas tanks - about 5 pounds - are not something soldiers want to carry around. So a gas tank transport vehicle is needed.

Then in actual combat, it was discovered that when soldiers received gas tanks, it would cause chaos in the formation, and the enemy would often take the opportunity to launch an attack. The probability of the Wind Lance Corps being defeated was more than 70%.

Historically, after investing a large amount of research and development funds, Austria finally gave up this "high-tech weapon" completely after a few years.

At this time, Joseph wanted to instill confidence in the senior officials of the Royal Military Commission - even the French, who were equipped with advanced equipment, cared so much about the "Spear of the Wind", which showed that it was definitely a development trend in the future.

In particular, the United Kingdom has now imitated the percussion cap rifle, and countries such as Prussia and Austria will certainly invest in the research and development of new guns in the future.

At this time, giving them a different technical route can disrupt their weapons replacement process to the greatest extent.

Leo seemed a little hesitant, and murmured:

"You are well-informed. You even know about the 'Spear of Wind'. However, I can only ask for you. The old stubborn people in the Military Committee treasure this thing very much."

(End of this chapter)