The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 822 France will “never” surrender!
1867 10 Month 15 Day.

The late autumn in Paris was filled with a faint smell of gunpowder. The barges on the Seine had long been used as floating bridges, and the barricades on the north bank of the Seine were interlaced like the fangs of a beast. Prince Napoleon stood on the bell tower of Notre Dame, and through the telescope, black smoke was coming out from the direction of Chercy - that was the fire at Chercy Railway Station! The fire was of course set by the "railway guerrillas", but it also showed that the Prussian army had approached the heart of France.

"The Vincenbourg artillery must be equipped with mortars," he turned to Garibaldi and Hu Wansheng and said, "If the railway in Chercy is blown up, it will take at least a week for the Prussian railway artillery to reach the defense line of the Paris Ring Road. By then, the defense of the north bank of the Seine will be even more indestructible!"

"But the south bank is our weak spot!" Garibaldi said. "It's crowded with refugees, but there aren't many barricades built there. There's only a line of defense consisting of barbed wire and trenches. In addition, most of our supplies are stored on the south bank."

Hu Wansheng drew a red circle on the Paris defense map with a charcoal pencil: "Then we will put all our cavalry in Montsouris Park. If a small number of Prussian troops sneak across the Seine, we can use sabers to drive them all into the Seine to feed the fish!"

Garibaldi stared at the Issy Battery on the south bank of the Seine: "What if Moltke uses a large-scale forced crossing? Will our artillery reserves be enough to stop them?"

Prince Napoleon was silent for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table: "The Prussians will not force a crossing of the Seine near Paris, at least not before their railway guns can block the Seine. Our six shallow-water heavy gunboats are no joke. And to allow their railway guns to approach the Seine, their engineers will have to lay dozens of kilometers of railroad tracks. They don't have that much time!"

"Then where will they focus their attack?" Hu Wansheng frowned.

"Saint-Denis," the prince said decisively. "The terrain there is open and suitable for the deployment of heavy artillery. There is also a railway line connecting it to Verdun. Once Saint-Denis is captured by the Prussians, they can avoid the strong 'fortress area' north of the Seine River and attack the weak area south of the Seine River, and complete the encirclement of Paris."

Garibaldi sneered: "Let them try. Saint-Denis has long been a fortress."

Suddenly, there was a sound of hurried footsteps outside the window, and a Red Guard rushed in, holding a leaflet in his hand: "Prussian hot air balloons! They are dropping letters of persuasion to surrender!"

Prince Napoleon took the leaflet, glanced at it, and sneered: "'Those who surrender will be spared death'? Moltke thinks we are useless Austrians?"

Hu Wansheng took the flyer and said firmly: "They underestimated Paris."

Garibaldi slammed the table and said, "Then let them see what 'France will never surrender' means!"

Prince Napoleon nodded: "Yes! France will never surrender again!"

The leaflets he had just picked up were spread out on the long oak table of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee. Blanqui's fingers tapped on the French slogan "Those who surrender will be spared death": "Comrade Commander-in-Chief, are you sure that the Prussian army only has 200,000?"

Prince Napoleon placed a report from the Railway Guerrillas on the conference table: "Moltke divided his troops into two groups in Metz. One group went south via Nancy, probably intending to go around to the east of Paris. However, the railway in Nancy has been destroyed by us. For the time being, there will only be 200,000 troops coming from the direction of Verdun."

Moore suddenly waved his hand, interrupting Prince Napoleon and saying, "We should tell the peasants in the provinces that the Prussians brought 700,000 troops! 100,000 more than when Napoleon invaded Russia!"

The propaganda committee member, Baudier, who was writing articles for several major provincial newspapers to promote "Paris's resistance to Prussia," was stunned: "Isn't this exaggerating the enemy's situation?"

"We have to exaggerate!" Moore laughed. "This time we want to let the French know that the Prussians are not coming to Paris to blackmail them. Their goal is to annex France and turn the French into slaves!"

"Destroy France?" Baudin frowned. "Can the French people believe it?"

"Why not?" Moore said, "Isn't the Austrian Empire dead? William I is ready to be crowned as the emperor of all Germany in Vienna! If he conquers France, he will be the emperor of all Europe. If the French don't want their descendants to speak German, then they should abandon their fantasies, take up arms, and prepare to fight to the death!"

Moore stood up, walked to the window, and pointed to the red flag flying in the Saint-Antoine district. "When the working people from all over France hear that the comrades in Paris have used their flesh and blood to block 700,000 demons, they will all be inspired and become our comrades!"

Blanqui frowned: "But the people in Paris will panic."

"So," Moore turned around, his eyes full of wisdom, "Inside the city of Paris, we only say 200,000. But outside the city, we want all of France to know that the Prussians are out in full force to completely destroy France!"

Prince Napoleon nodded: "Fear unites people."

Garibaldi sneered: "Or collapse." "That depends on how we guide them." Moore grabbed the leaflet on the table and crumpled it into a ball. "The Parisians will not surrender! And the French in the provinces must know that the Parisians are still fighting. They have stopped 700,000 Prussian troops. What reason do the French in the provinces have to kneel down to the Prussians?"

Blanqui, the chairman of the Supreme Council, nodded heavily: "Moore's method is good, just promote it!" He paused and asked Prince Napoleon, "Comrade Commander-in-Chief, I order the French National Army to fight to the end in Paris and never surrender!"

Prince Napoleon stood at attention: "Yes, Comrade Chairman!"

July 10th night.

When the first shells from the Prussian 150mm railway guns landed near the Invalides in Paris, Moore was standing on the Place de la Concorde and giving a speech. Parisians held torches and surrounded their revolutionary leader.

"Workers! Farmers!" Moore's voice tore through the night sky, his hands resting on the railing of the podium. "While the Habsburg minions were kneeling and licking Prussian boots, we were digging trenches outside the Paris Ring Road! While the nobles in Vienna were cheering for the edicts of canonization, the workers in Paris were working in three shifts to make bullets!"

The crowd roared, and the sea of ​​torches shook violently. Baudier stood beside Moore, thinking about what kind of poem he should write to praise the heroic people of Paris: "... Rise up, the French who refuse to wave the white flag. Well, not good, rise up, the people who do not want to be slaves..."

Blanqui lowered his voice and asked Prince Napoleon: "How long can the Château de Vincennes last?"

The Fort of Vincennes is located on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes, in the eastern suburbs of Paris. It is also the eastern gateway to Paris. Like the town of Saint-Denis, it is a key point in the attack and defense of Paris.

The prince stared at the flickering fire in the east and said, "Don't worry. Even if the Prussian army blows Vincennes Castle into ruins, our comrades can hold on. Because we can send troops and supplies to Vincennes Castle through the sewers of Paris. My cousin finally did a good thing!"

The sewer system of Paris was the most important political achievement of Emperor Napoleon III - he built a clean, sanitary and spacious sewer system for the people of Paris, which was so spacious that horses could run in it!

This sewer was built not long ago and is quite clean inside. Not only can people leave, but they can even live in it.

Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound streaked across the sky. "Be careful!" Hu Wansheng suddenly used his body to protect Blanqui. A shell happened to explode at the edge of the square, and the blast overturned more than a dozen torches. But the crowd did not disperse, instead, a louder "Marseillaise" rang out.

Moore grabbed his hat, waved it vigorously, and continued to shout: "The Austrians can live if they hand over their sabers, and the Bohemians can become obedient citizens if they kneel down - but the backbone of France is cast iron!" He grabbed a handful of torn pieces of paper, which were letters of surrender dropped by the Prussian hot air balloon. "Look at these pieces of paper! Moltke thought we would hang a white flag like Strasbourg? No! Every stone in Paris will become a bullet!"

Garibaldi squeezed through the crowd and said, "Just received news that several of Steinmetz's heavy artillery trains have arrived near the town of Saint-Denis!"

Prince Napoleon's expression froze: "It's about to begin..."

Moore then took a red flag and waved it vigorously: "Citizens! Remember today - October 1867, 10! When our descendants ask 'Why can France be great again', you must point to these barricades and tell them -"

"France will never surrender! Paris will never surrender!" The roar of one hundred thousand throats flooded the Place de la Concorde.

Steinmetz's silver-plated pipe creaked as he bit it. Through the telescope, Vincennes Castle in the eastern suburbs of Paris was engulfed by artillery fire. The staff officer saluted him with a military report he had just received: "The Second Railway Artillery Battalion has established a position near Saint-Denis. Twelve 12mm heavy artillery can fire at any time!"

"Okay!" The old general put down the telescope, "Tell Commander-in-Chief Moltke to send me more shells! In addition, I also need a 210mm mortar. The shells must be filled with picric acid and nitroglycerin explosives!"

"Yes, sir!"

The staff officer agreed, and Steinmetz turned his attention to Vincennes Castle, which was being bombarded. This was just the appetizer. The tentative bombardment and the tentative attack revealed the French firepower points and strengths. Then the giant picric acid or nitroglycerin fragmentation shells fired by the 210mm mortars were used. If nothing unexpected happened, Vincennes Castle and Saint-Denis would have to raise the white flag in three days at most. Even Napoleon III in the Sedan Fortress could not bear it, so how could the Paris workers in Vincennes Castle and Saint-Denis hold on? You are kidding.
At the same time, Blanqui and Moore, who had returned to the headquarters of the Workers' Association, had Military Commissar Dombrovsky and Security Commissar Raoul Rigaud called over.

Blanqui said solemnly: "Comrade Dombrovsky, Comrade Rigaud, I order you to lead the Red Guards to Vincennes and Saint-Denis to enforce the revolutionary military regulations!"

Moore added: "Don't retreat, stick to it!"

(End of this chapter)