Ney glanced skeptically at the iron-barrel "cannons" and remarked to Moreau with disdain:

"Your 'little invention' is amusing, but it won't fool the Moroccans for long. They'll soon realize that after all this shelling, not a single one of them is hurt."

"You should really read David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature," Moreau replied, pointing toward the distant Moroccan positions. "They'll just think they got lucky and laugh at the poor accuracy of French artillery."

"…Whatever you say."

After the "bombardment" continued for a while, the French infantry line appeared on the horizon.

Ney anxiously instructed his soldiers to maintain their spacing and keep their backs to the woods—the infantry line was only one rank deep, with wide gaps between soldiers. Only with the dim forest as a backdrop could they hope to deceive the enemy.

Meanwhile, Moreau led his cavalry back and forth along the flanks of the line, making it look as though they were preparing for a major battle.

From a distance, Agord watched the line of infantry, stretching over a kilometer, and the cavalry kicking up clouds of dust. His brow furrowed deeply.

At least 4,000 infantry, over 1,000 cavalry, and 15 cannons—this had to be Schérer's corps. But how had they managed to march from the lower Majerda River so quickly?

Soon, another cavalryman arrived with a report that a French camp had been found four miles to the south, large enough to house nearly 10,000 troops.

Agord was now fully convinced.

Given the strength of the French forces, his 5,000–6,000 men stood no chance. They could only hope to engage in a decisive battle when Pasha Saïd arrived with the main force of the guard.

No, wait, he suddenly realized. The Sultan had instructed them to avoid clashing with the main French forces—their mission in Tunisia was to raid and then collect a reward from the British. Going head-to-head with a major power like France, regardless of the outcome, wasn't in Morocco's interest.

After pondering for a long time, he turned to his aide and ordered:

"Leave the Akkad Regiment behind; the rest will retreat discreetly. And keep the cannons firing to confuse the French."

"Yes, General!"

Moreau had expected to repel one or two probing attacks from the Moroccans at all costs before fully intimidating them. However, the enemy showed no intention of fighting at all.

Glad to buy time, he ordered the iron-barrel "cannons" to keep firing, pretending that the battle was intense.

Thus, the two armies "bombarded" each other from nearly a kilometer apart for an entire day, and when night fell, both sides withdrew.

The next day, the shelling continued until the afternoon when Moreau began to sense something was wrong. He decided to take half his cavalry on a risky raid against the Moroccans, only to find that there were no enemy cavalry defending the position.

He circled Tamiré several times, finally confirming that only about 2,000 Moroccan soldiers remained on the front lines; the rest had vanished.

He never imagined that his act had been so convincing that it had scared the Moroccans into retreating.

After returning, he discussed the situation with Ney, and they decided to gather all their forces, including the few hundred Tunisian soldiers from Tamiré, and launch a fierce attack on the remaining Moroccan troops from two directions.

...

Paris.

Second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph stared at the map of North Africa on the table, his expression troubled.

According to the intelligence sent last week, there were large-scale troop movements in Algiers and Tripoli, indicating that the British were likely preparing to act against Tunisia.

Meanwhile, in India, the news was that the Mysore army was aggressively attacking Tiruchirappalli, the southernmost principality of Carnatic. If Mysore captured it, they would threaten Nagapattinam, the British's only supply point in southeastern India.

Joseph was certain that if Nagapattinam was at risk, the British would return to the negotiating table—Nagapattinam was a critical port for British trade ships returning from East Asia. Without it, British ships would have to detour hundreds of miles to Madras for fresh water and food, or buy supplies from the French in Pondicherry.

Therefore, the British were likely to spare no expense to create chaos in Tunisia as a bargaining chip to secure their interests in India.

The General Staff had already dispatched 6,000 troops to reinforce Tunisia, which was the limit of what France's finances could bear.

Honestly, if the situation in Tunisia deteriorated further, Joseph would have no choice but to send the Guards to North Africa to clean up the mess, which would impact strategic plans in Southern Netherlands.

If it came to that, he would have to consider accepting the British terms, effectively conceding his strategy to limit British power in India.

At that moment, Émancourt knocked and entered, handing him a secret report. "Your Highness, this just arrived from Tunisia."

Joseph quickly opened the wooden tube and pulled out the pages inside.

Seeing that the report was from General Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer, he was puzzled—normally, this would be the Intelligence Bureau's responsibility.

He read on, noting that Schérer mentioned how the Moroccans had joined the siege of Tunisia, sending their elite Black Guard of over 14,000 men, while the Algerian Guard feigned an attack on Kef, drawing Schérer's main force downstream to the Majerda River.

Joseph frowned and continued reading, seeing that Schérer reported how two "volunteer" units had fiercely defended Tamiré, managing to repel a force of 10,000 Moroccans with fewer than 2,000 men, capturing over 700 prisoners and seizing 11 cannons...

Hmm? Joseph raised an eyebrow. Two thousand against ten thousand, with such a decisive victory including prisoners and seized artillery—what was going on?

He flipped to the last page and, upon reading the detailed battle report, his eyes lit up.

Victor Moreau and Michel Ney? So it was those two 'marshal' big shots commanding the battle!

No wonder they achieved a 1-to-5 ratio in victory.

Joseph mused to himself: France is truly rich in talent. These formidable marshals under Napoleon were now just lowly lieutenants, commanding troops not even their own, and they still managed to unexpectedly foil the Moroccan raid.

No wonder Schérer sent this report himself—he was eager to claim credit for the victory before the Intelligence Bureau could report it.

When Joseph saw that Moreau's noble soldiers had named themselves the "Cavalry Regiment Guided by God," he couldn't help but shake his head and smile. Here they were, adults, yet they still came up with such a melodramatic name.

But since they liked it, he would let them have it.

Joseph immediately picked up his pen and endorsed the report, officially granting the 1,000 noble soldiers the title of the "Royal Cavalry Regiment Guided by God."

At the same time, Moreau was promoted to major, and Ney to captain. The former was granted 700 hectares of land in Tripoli, and the latter 500 hectares.

(End of Chapter)

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