Chapter 1004: The High-Tech French Army
The sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue without a breath of wind, leaving the world as still and serene as an oil painting.
On the parade ground of the Paris Army Officer Academy, Joseph stood alongside dozens of officers, their heads tilted back as they squinted at a small gray speck high in the air.
Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier stood beside him, offering an eager introduction. "Your Highness, we eventually discovered that silk was not only expensive but also lacked sufficient airtightness."
"After repeated trials, we chose to bond paper and silk together to create the envelope. The results have been excellent."
"The current hot air balloon is incredibly durable, and its weight has been reduced by thirty-five percent compared to previous models."
Indeed, floating in the sky was a hot air balloon—a military version that had undergone numerous refinements.
As early as ten years ago, the Montgolfier brothers from southern France had invented the world's first hot air balloon and demonstrated it at Versailles.
However, the balloons of that era used paper for the envelope, supported by external linen ropes. They were extremely cumbersome to deploy and prone to tearing.
At the time, the French military had evaluated the invention and deemed it below military standards, promptly setting it aside.
After receiving a grant of 7,000 francs, the Montgolfier brothers finally met the military's technical requirements. Today marked the first official technical inspection.
A technical officer from the General Staff asked, "Regarding fire prevention, how did you resolve that issue?"
The elder brother, Michel, immediately beamed with pride. "Alum, sir. We soaked the balloon's mouth and the inner lining in alum. This effectively prevents them from being ignited by stray sparks."
The hot air balloon had drifted to an altitude of four to five hundred meters, hovering steadily, held in place by its mooring ropes.
Below, a soldier standing beneath the balloon peered through a telescope at the basket above, chanting letters aloud: "d, e, u, x..."
Another soldier recorded the signals with a rapid pen. Less than two minutes later, he held up the paper and shouted, "Target at 2.2 kilometers. Bearing one o'clock, five minutes, twenty-two seconds. Estimated elevation plus 55 meters. Three 12-pounder cannons. Approximately 70 soldiers."
A staff officer nodded excitedly toward Joseph. "Completely accurate, Your Highness."
The balloon had precisely reported the situation at a firing range over two kilometers away.
The surrounding officers exchanged thrilled glances and broke into a round of applause.
In this era, obtaining intelligence on enemy movements just a few kilometers away required sending out cavalry scouts.
Even without enemy interference, it would take a scout at least an hour to ride out and return with a report.
The hot air balloon had done it in two minutes!
And that was only one of its advantages.
Cavalry were often obstructed by terrain and could only provide a general overview; much of their information relied on experienced guesswork.
A balloon, however, held the high ground. Every soldier and every wagon was laid bare before its eyes.
Furthermore, while a scout had to leave to report what they saw, a balloon could stay in the sky and track the enemy continuously.
One could imagine that in future wars, while the enemy was still cautiously maneuvering kilometers away, the French would already know whether they were eating salt pork or pickled radishes for lunch.
It was practically like playing a game with the "full map" revealed. How could an enemy even fight back?
Michel Montgolfier continued to boast, "Your Highness, according to our previous tests, on a clear day, one can even spot crowds of people ten kilometers away."
"You have created a magnificent invention," Joseph said with a satisfied nod. However, his mind drifted back to the launch process—it had taken twenty men to stretch the balloon out and light the fires to funnel hot air into the mouth.
By the time the balloon had finally ascended, over two hours had passed.
On a battlefield, such a delay could mean a lost opportunity.
"The launch time is still a bit too long." He turned to the elder Montgolfier. "I want you to bring the launch time down to under an hour. Likewise, recovery should take no more than thirty minutes."
"That..." The elder Montgolfier froze. The process for inflating and deflating the balloon was fixed; there wasn't much room for improvement.
Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and bowed. "I will ensure Your Highness is satisfied."
Joseph caught his look of distress and, recalling some designs from his original world, suggested, "You could design a specialized vehicle for balloon deployment and recovery."
"Equip the wagon with a folding mast that can hold the collapsed balloon in place."
"The mast can remain folded for storage, but when needed, it can be extended, and the balloon will unfurl instantly."
The Montgolfier brothers' eyes lit up at the idea.
A deflated balloon was just a massive pile of fabric; just finding the inflation port took ages, and spreading it out took another ten minutes.
With the Crown Prince's method, the balloon could begin inflating the moment the mast was raised.
Joseph continued, "Additionally, you could install foot-pedal bellows on the wagon. Use them to blow air into the flames during launch, so the hot air fills the envelope faster."
"You might even try using a small steam engine for pressurized inflation."
"Furthermore, try to minimize the volume of the balloon. A smaller envelope fills more quickly..."
As he spoke, he noticed the distant balloon beginning a slow descent.
He turned his head toward Berthier in confusion. "Is the test over?"
The Chief of Staff hurriedly replied, "Not yet, Your Highness. The balloon is running low on fuel and needs to descend to refuel."
Joseph frowned. "How long has it been up?"
A nearby staff officer checked his watch. "Thirty-two minutes, Your Highness."
"Such a short duration?"
The elder Montgolfier quickly explained, "Your Highness, this is merely a test balloon. In the future, we can build them larger so they can carry more fuel."
The younger brother added in a hushed tone, "But that would make the inflation time even longer..."
Joseph let out a sigh. "What fuel are you using?"
"A mixture of straw and wool, Your Highness."
'No wonder it doesn't last,' Joseph thought. 'How much heat can burning that rubbish generate?'
In the future, hot air balloons used propane or liquefied natural gas. Since those were currently impossible to produce, he skipped the thought.
The next step up should be kerosene...
Currently, France's coal tar industry could refine kerosene, but it was still in the experimental laboratory phase. Production was extremely low, and the cost was astronomical.
"Use alcohol for now, then," Joseph decided with some resignation.
While the caloric value of alcohol wasn't as high as kerosene, it far exceeded straw. It should allow the balloon to stay aloft much longer.
The downside was that alcohol wasn't cheap. Moreover, bringing barrels of alcohol to a battlefield made it inevitable that some soldiers would try to sneak a drink.
'We'll make do with this for now, but I need to get kerosene production moving as soon as possible.'
Not only would it provide fuel for balloons, but kerosene lamps were a goldmine of an industry. In his past world, the famous Mobil Oil had built its foundation as a petrochemical giant through kerosene lamps.
But Lavoisier was currently tied up in the Palatinate with the fertilizer plants. Who could he entrust this to?
Joseph suddenly recalled the concept of "economic benefits driving technological innovation."
France had so many chemists and chemical plants; as long as he provided enough material incentive, he might be rewarded with an unexpected surprise.
He pulled out his notebook and jotted down: 'Tender for Kerosene Refining Technology.'
Afterward, Joseph discussed the military application of hot air balloons with Berthier and the other staff officers.
The preliminary decision was to equip each infantry division with three balloons, to be operated by the engineers.
One staff officer remarked with some regret, "Such a powerful reconnaissance tool... it would be wonderful if we could provide one to every regiment."
Berthier nodded. "Honestly, it would be enough if the intelligence gathered by the balloons could be rapidly relayed to every officer, much like the Chappe telegraph towers."
The comment was meant in passing, but it struck a chord with Joseph. 'Of course! If every regiment were equipped with a Chappe signal system, wouldn't command efficiency increase tenfold?'
'Have the engineers carry prefabricated panels to build signal towers quickly on the battlefield?'
That didn't seem realistic.
Even if the engineers worked themselves to death, it would take half a day to erect a basic signal tower. Even if it were built, the battlefield situation changed in an instant; by the time it was ready, the unit might have moved elsewhere. A tower couldn't move with them...
Suddenly, images of modern cherry pickers and scissor lifts flashed through Joseph's mind. Using a hinged X-brace, a platform could be raised ten meters into the air. Two men could stand on it—one to send signals and another to observe with a telescope. It would be a miniature Chappe signal tower.
Moreover, the whole apparatus could be mounted on a carriage and towed anywhere.
While a ten-meter platform wouldn't have the range of a fixed tower, it would be tall enough to clear most trees and allow communication over two or three kilometers.
In a typical battle involving tens of thousands of men, the battlefield width was usually only about ten kilometers. Three or four Chappe signal vehicles would be enough to span the entire front.
With such a system, a French commander-in-chief's orders would reach every mid-level officer in three to five minutes. Simultaneously, the commander could maintain a real-time understanding of every battalion's status.
This efficiency would be orders of magnitude higher than relying on messengers galloping back and forth!
Joseph's thoughts expanded further.
If they placed signal operators on the hot air balloons and kept one or two balloons aloft between the fixed signal towers and the front lines—not flying too high—they could bridge the communication gap between the rear and the vanguard.
It sounded simple, but it would eliminate the "last thirty kilometers" blind spot of the Chappe telegraph network.
If realized, an order issued from Paris could reach a frontline commander within two hours. And vice versa.
Expanding even further...
Two widely separated theaters—such as Italy and the Southern Netherlands—could coordinate their operations through Paris acting as a central information hub.
The entire process might take less than four hours.
What did four hours mean?
For an army of a hundred thousand men, it could take that long just for a commander-in-chief's orders to reach the wings of his own army!
As someone who understood the modern art of war, Joseph knew exactly how much information efficiency impacted an army's combat power.
An army with high information efficiency fighting a low-efficiency one was like a nimble monkey pummeling a sloth.
By the time the sloth's brain sent a signal to its arm, the monkey would have already landed several punches and danced away.
This was why modern nations invested staggering amounts into military information technology; the level of "informationization" had become the primary standard for judging an army's strength.
Joseph suddenly realized that once the hot air balloons and mobile signal towers were fully implemented, the French army would achieve total dominance over every other force in Europe. They would crush them in early warning, reconnaissance, command relay, inter-corps coordination, information sharing, and friend-or-foe identification.
Wasn't this effectively the informationized army of this era?
Coupled with the training and morale of the French regular corps, it wouldn't just be possible to win when outnumbered—it might even be possible to take on twice their number!
Joseph took a deep breath, thinking to himself: 'I didn't expect the greatest improvement from this military reform to come from this area.'
He immediately called for all the staff officers to move to the academy's conference hall, where he began outlining his vision for an informationized military.
The meeting lasted until past six in the evening. Hearing the rhythmic protests of the officers' stomachs, Joseph called for an adjournment, announcing that the discussion would continue tomorrow at the General Staff headquarters.
He walked out of the hall, exhausted. As he prepared to head to the academy's mess hall, he saw Talleyrand standing outside, clearly having waited for quite some time.
"What brings you here? Is there an emergency?"
The Minister of Foreign Affairs hurried forward and bowed before whispering, "Your Highness, news arrived this afternoon. William II passed away the day before yesterday."
Joseph's brow furrowed instantly.
He recalled that in history, William II wasn't supposed to die for another two years. Why the sudden change?
He looked at Talleyrand. "Tell me the details."
"Yes, Your Highness." Talleyrand leaned on his cane as he walked beside the Crown Prince. "Karl Ludwig dealt a crushing blow to the Prussian forces in Silesia. He defeated the corps led by Tauentzien and Moellendorff in succession and has surrounded the Prince of Hohenlohe's main force at Liegnitz."
"Upon receiving the news, William II suffered from convulsions and fell into a coma. He stopped breathing only a few hours later."
"Currently, William III is undergoing his coronation. Wilhelmine has been sent to a convent, and the Prussian government is temporarily under the control of Prince Heinrich."
Joseph entered the mess hall and took a seat at a random table, gesturing for Talleyrand to sit opposite him. "So, how does Potsdam plan to handle the situation in Silesia?"
"It is said that Baron Friedrich has already gone to London to seek British mediation. Prince Heinrich's stance seems to favor an immediate ceasefire," Talleyrand reported. "As you know, Prussia currently lacks the finances and the military strength to continue the war."
Joseph frowned deeply.
He had expected Prussia and Austria to bleed each other dry for several years, but he hadn't anticipated William II's sudden death. Given the symptoms, it was likely a stroke or heart attack triggered by the shock.
With Prussia facing such a sudden upheaval, they were very likely to surrender to Austria.
The latter might even gain more territory in Silesia, allowing them to rapidly recover the national strength they had lost after the failure of the First Coalition.
As one side waxed and the other waned, Austria's dominance over the German states would be significantly bolstered.
This was definitely not good news for France.
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