I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1082 The Complete Demise of the Barbary Pirates
The Akram tribe in west-central Algiers.

The tribal chief, Lazarz, loudly urged his people to load bags of valuables onto the backs of camels. Not far behind him, a caravan of hundreds of camels was slowly moving westward toward the mountains.

Just then, Lazarz's son rode up on horseback, pointing north in a panic, and cried out, "Father, they're here!"

Lazarz froze instantly; he knew his son was referring to Hadid's men.

He looked at the chaotic tribe, at least half of whom had not yet left, and felt extremely anxious.

Yes, although the messenger he sent had arrived two days ago, in this era of extremely low organizational and mobilization capabilities, it was impossible for all 8 tribesmen to evacuate within two days.

In particular, many people still harbor wishful thinking and are unwilling to give up their belongings at home.

It wasn't until Lazarz returned to his tribe that the tribesmen sped up their evacuation.

However, only half a day later, those damned naval bandits arrived.

Lazarz knew very well that these guys were all pirates, and even during Day's reign, they dared to rob small tribes.

With the current French governor inactive, they will certainly be even more unscrupulous and may very well sell the Akerm tribe members as slaves after looting.

Lazarz hurriedly shouted to the elders beside him, "Tell everyone to run away immediately, and don't take anything with you!"

Then he instructed his son to gather the warriors of the tribe to defend the northern part of the tribe against the enemy.

An hour later, the flag of the Algiers Navy came into view in Lazarz.

When he vaguely saw the dark cannons and heard the scouts report that there were more than 400 enemies, despair instantly enveloped him.

The Akram tribe has only 160 warriors, some of whom still live in the mountains to protect their people.

The most critical issue is that the enemy has cannons.

Soon, the navy sent people over, demanding that the Aklm tribe hand over 12 rials of "secretly hidden Imperial Guard property" and 500 camels.

Lazarz naturally couldn't come up with that much money. He had previously amassed twenty or thirty thousand rials when he raided the Imperial Guard, but even if he plundered the entire tribe, he probably wouldn't be able to raise the rest.

The navy gave him no chance to delay and launched an attack just half an hour later.

The navy did not fire any cannons, but only fired a few shots at random, and the hundred or so soldiers of Aklm began to retreat in fear.

Lazarz closed his eyes in anguish. He knew that if the tribe were plundered by these pirates, it would suffer heavy losses, and many of its people would starve to death in the winter.

His hands trembled as he was about to send his son to tell the pirates that the tribe was willing to offer 12 rials and the camels, when he suddenly heard what sounded like orderly drumming coming from the hills to the east.

The pirates, who had been menacingly rushing towards the tribe, were startled, stopped in their tracks, turned around, and raised their guns in defense.

Before long, Lazarz saw a troop of soldiers in white uniforms lined up in a straight line, rapidly approaching the pirates to the sound of war drums.

These soldiers numbered less than 200, but they were imposing, as if the navy in front of them were just a flock of sheep.

Lazarz's son also went to Mittja this time, and immediately recognized the uniforms, exclaiming, "It's the French army!"

Lazarz reached out and slapped him on the head, scolding, "That's one of our Roman compatriots!"

"Yes, our Roman compatriots!" the young man shouted excitedly to the tribal warriors beside him. "Our Roman compatriots have come to our rescue!" An officer from the naval ranks approached the French troops, said something to them, and was then tied up by several soldiers.

The navy's expression changed immediately, and they hesitated whether to open fire, but the French army launched a volley first.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of French cavalrymen appeared on the left flank of the navy, instantly disrupting their formation.

The battle lasted less than 20 minutes before it was over.

Hadid's men were mostly a hastily recruited rabble; how could they possibly be a match for the regular French army? At this moment, all 400-odd men were kneeling on the ground with their heads bowed, their rifles pointed at them.

Lazarz and a group of tribal elders, led by soldiers, approached a French captain.

After the men bowed respectfully, the captain gestured to the translator: "Tell them that Governor Uster sent me to quell the naval mutiny. They are safe now."

Yes, the main force of the Ney Army appears to have withdrawn to Tunisia, but more than 5 soldiers deserted en route and scattered throughout Algiers, waiting to strike when the "naval mutiny" occurs.

A few hours later, the Akram tribesmen poured out, surrounding the captured pirates and cursing them loudly. Some of the bolder ones even picked up stones and threw them.

Lazarz's son then came among his people and led the chant: "May the Lord bless our fellow Romans!"

The surrounding crowd immediately joined in, shouting, "May the Lord bless our fellow Romans!"

Seeing that the French soldiers didn't seem to understand, Lazarz quickly shouted in his newly learned French, "Long live His Majesty the King!"

The tribesmen followed along and learned it a few times, then cheered in broken French, "Long live His Majesty the King!"

Similar scenarios were playing out throughout Algiers, with more than a dozen large tribes being protected by the French army and spared from naval raids.

For a time, the prestige of the Roman compatriots soared among the Berbers.

Subsequently, all major towns and tribes in Algiers received orders to "assist the army in suppressing the naval mutiny." The target included all naval personnel.

The "navy" in Algiers is not an army.

They were formed around the core of the remnants of Hayreddin, the once-powerful pirate who dominated the Mediterranean. The members were primarily Ottomans, but also included many Arabs, Greeks, and even Spaniards. Over several centuries, they developed into a distinct social class, numbering around 100,000.

Soon, the various Berber tribes launched a fierce retaliation.

Just like they had dealt with the Imperial Guards, they began to search and confiscate the navy's property from house to house.

Just a week later, Shefik was shot to death by a group of Berber warriors. Until his death, he was still sending people to contact his patron, Governor Uster.

With nowhere else to go, the Algiers navy began to flee in all directions, and then they remembered where the Imperial Guard had gone before—the Mzab tribe.

French Tunisian Legion soldiers diligently maintain the passageways leading from various parts of Algiers to Mzab.

In the end, after the Berbers captured the naval traitors, they all knew to send them south.

By early October, with the concerted efforts of more than 1.5 million Berber-Arabs, the Ottomans and Greeks throughout Algiers had been almost entirely driven to the southern desert region.

While Berber nobles and tribal leaders celebrated their great victory, Governor Uster, along with his administrative officials and officers such as Jemüller, began to advance the most crucial step in the plan for the unification of Algiers.

(End of this chapter)