"Okay then! I'll definitely study hard, don't you forget!" The young girl immediately went to Charlotte's side to help.
Watching the two beautiful maidens, one tall and one small, standing side by side, discussing how to make pastries, Charles finally let out a soft sigh.
Charles had clearly seen their reactions during this period and deeply understood their thoughts. However, even if he knew, he couldn't do anything; he couldn't possibly help one and suppress the other. As for accepting both, he had no objection, but the two women would definitely object. Before he could truly control their hearts, such a bad idea was best not even considered.
While both women were busy, Charles opened a letter and began to read it.
This letter was sent by Franklin from Philadelphia, and its content mainly concerned explosives.
The beginning of the letter was almost entirely complaints. Picric acid was fine; at least, it was relatively safe if not touched, and the only trouble was that it often detonated earlier than expected, but by handling it carefully as Charles requested, it hadn't caused much harm. But nitroglycerin was different; just over ten explosions, large and small, had destroyed several laboratories, killed several people, and even almost caused a fire at Philadelphia College.
Accidents involving explosions had occurred during both transport and experimentation. Now, the number of people involved in explosive research had dwindled from over twenty to five or six.
However, the letter recorded a very important experiment: the experimenter filled a small glass tube with nitroglycerin, sealed the opening; then, placed this glass tube into a slightly larger metal tube, filled it with black gunpowder, and inserted a fuse. After sealing the metal tube's opening and lighting the fuse, the metal tube was thrown into a ditch.
The result was a violent explosion, much more powerful than an equal amount of black gunpowder. This indicated that all the nitroglycerin had completely exploded. Franklin believed they had found a correct method of detonation, so he eagerly wrote to inform Charles.
However, seeing another achievement made Charles laugh and cry. The letter stated that, following Charles' hint to add things to nitroglycerin to make it less prone to explosion, they conducted multiple filling experiments using charcoal powder, sawdust, diatomaceous earth, and other materials. They finally discovered that absorbing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth made it safer and could still be detonated in the original way.
According to Charles' guess, that safe nitroglycerin should be the safe explosive successfully researched by Nobel. However, at the end of the letter, Franklin told Charles that they still hadn't researched the detonator Charles mentioned. So now history had been inverted; the detonator hadn't been invented yet, but the safe explosive had been invented first.
Historically, the detonator should have been invented first to detonate nitroglycerin, and then safe explosives would have been gradually experimented with, and then safe explosives would have been directly detonated with detonators. But now, it was good. Safe explosives existed, but the detonation method was still relatively dangerous. It was truly worrying.
However, Charles was already very satisfied with the current achievements. Aside from the troublesome detonation and the inability to use this safe explosive in artillery, it could at least be applied to blasting work for mining and road construction. As for the battlefield, they would continue to use black powder.
The rest of the letter mainly introduced the situation in Philadelphia and New York. The Continental Congress in Philadelphia had largely adjourned, and Franklin himself would soon depart for Europe to lobby king Louis XVI for support of the United States' independence movement. The situation in New York, however, was rather amusing.
In June 1776, General William Howe, commander-in-chief of the British army who had withdrawn from Boston, led over 30,000 British regulars and Hessian mercenaries hired from Germany, planning to march south to capture New York and the Hudson River, defeat the Continental army, and completely crush America's independence.
On July 12th, General Howe's brother, Admiral Richard Howe, commanded a fleet that sailed into the Hudson Bay, threatening New York City. In Richard Howe's view, the Continental army had no navy at all, and their only option was to surrender. His cannons were aimed at New York City, and then he dispatched a messenger with a personal letter to Washington, offering terms of surrender.
The conditions were to immediately cease the rebellion, restore the original order, and receive the British king's pardon. Because the British did not recognize the United States as a sovereign nation, the envelope of the surrender letter avoided specifying military rank and title, vaguely writing only "To Mr. Washington."
Who knew that Washington took this "minor detail" very seriously? He sternly told the British envoy: as a Virginia planter and a citizen of the United States, he had no right to receive an envoy from the British king; if the letter was addressed to a general of the Continental army, he refused to accept official documents and letters that did not specify the formal title.
This was a matter of principle concerning the national integrity and dignity of the United States, and insisting on receiving respect from the other party was his "responsibility" to his country and his office.
Admiral Richard Howe naturally also refused to "lose principle" and make concessions, so he came up with a compromise: he dispatched another colonel as a special envoy to meet Washington and verbally convey the contents of the letter. The colonel was eloquent and repeatedly explained that the letter used the address "Esquire," not the usual "Your Excellency," and that there were many precedents for this in diplomatic correspondence.
The content of the letter was to "promote peace," meaning it demanded that the Continental army lay down its arms and cease fighting, and could expect the British king's pardon, and so on. After listening, Washington told the British envoy in a sarcastic tone:
"Those who have committed no fault do not need anyone's forgiveness! This is the situation of the people of the United States; in their minds, they are merely defending their undeniable rights."
Charles was living a leisurely life in Pittsburgh, while Antoine and Sullivan of the Western Expeditionary Force, after receiving notification from Pittsburgh, had already rushed with their troops to the vicinity of Lake Superior.
The Midwest of the United States is basically plains and plateaus.
On the shores of Lake Superior, the westernmost of the Great Lakes, there are mountains and water, as well as large areas of pristine plains, which are excellent places for establishing camps and training soldiers. Iroquois warriors, distributed along the Great Lakes and in Canada, arrived by boat and on horseback at this camp set up for them by the British, to learn how to use firearms. (Note: Historically, the British didn't give much.)
________
Antoine and Sullivan were lying prone behind a shallow slope, observing the native camp on Lake Superior with Dianaoculars.
The camp of several thousand people was already a vast, dense area, with people coming and going, more bustling than a small marketplace.
"These cunning natives! They really chose a good camp. In such a dense lakeside forest, they could still find such a large, flat, and exposed open space. The guard posts are also too numerous. It's impossible for us to launch a surprise attack on them." Sullivan watched for a long time, finally just sighing and shaking his head.
"Fortunately, their cavalry numbers are not large, only about five hundred, so they haven't formed an overwhelming advantage against us. As for the vast majority of native infantry, we are never afraid!" Antoine's tone was much more relaxed.
When Europeans fought natives, they feared their cavalry the most. These native riders traversed mountains and ridges as if on flat ground. Compared to white soldiers riding tall but delicate European warhorses, they were immeasurably fiercer. And before breech-loading rifles appeared, muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, with their firing frequency and accuracy, found it very difficult to directly counter charging cavalry.
This time, the Western Expeditionary Force was still primarily infantry. To counter the native cavalry, the Western Expeditionary Force, when first formed, planned to bring most of the commoners who could ride and shoot, intending to use firearms against the native cavalry.
But Sullivan changed the formation, replacing long spears with sabers and short guns, and selecting excellent riders for the cavalry. These men could not be called cavalry, but at least they were stronger than those mounted infantry, and even in direct combat, they still had some fighting ability on horseback.
They had originally prepared to use infantry to directly confront cavalry, but now seeing that the natives seemed to have abandoned traditional cavalry and instead were learning firearms from the British, both commanders immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
The Western Expeditionary Force, fearing logistical shortages, had only brought three hundred soldiers, intending only for them to tie down the native cavalry when necessary. Now it seemed they were indeed sufficient to be thrown into battle.
They had confidence in their own people; perhaps they were not a match for the natives with bows and arrows, but with firearms, they were absolutely superior to the American hunters who grew up with firearms.
"Haha, why don't we formally send an envoy to challenge them to a decisive battle on the plains? That way, one major battle can solve the problem."
"If they were traditional natives, they would definitely be willing to accept…" Antoine pondered the native character.
"The British have trained their riflemen for so long, they must have trained them for open-field decisive battles, so they should agree to the challenge," Sullivan, who understood the British better, said.
Antoine had originally been a little wary of Sullivan, who came from the regular army, after all, he himself was only a sergeant before retiring, while Sullivan was a proper Continental army officer. However, after spending these days together, the two had come to understand each other and no longer had any guard or fear.
It just so happened that one understood natives better, and the other understood the British better, forming a complementary pair, so their assessment of this group of natives trained by the British was naturally more accurate.
The messenger was dispatched quickly, and the native camp immediately became a commotion, but no large force came out; they simply visibly strengthened their surveillance of the surroundings. After a long while, the camp slowly quieted down.
The messenger only returned to the Western Expeditionary Force half a day later, reporting to the two commanders that both the natives and the British had agreed to a decisive battle tomorrow morning at sunrise, on the desolate plain about a mile outside their camp.
They had originally worried that the natives, not knowing the true strength of their army, might refuse a field battle. Now, hearing that they actually agreed, Antoine and Sullivan were naturally overjoyed and immediately went to arrange for their men to prepare for the formal decisive battle the next day.
The original combat power of the two armies was actually similar, but now there was a difference. The natives were almost all newly trained riflemen, while the soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Force were basically armed old hunters. In this situation, a slight gap had actually formed.
However, after the British and natives received Antoine's challenge, they discussed it. The natives believed that their riflemen were the bravest warriors, and their firearms were almost hitting a hundred out of a hundred, so going into battle would definitely not be a problem.
The British knew that firing in battle was completely different from firing in training, but internally, they didn't consider the natives as their own people, so they naturally wouldn't point out such mistakes.
Coupled with the belief that the main Continental army in America was tied up by the main British army in the east and could not send a large army over, they also approved of a field battle, which would be a good opportunity for the natives to demonstrate the results of their training.
Both sides were confident in their own armies, which led to the opportunity for a challenged battle.
As the sun was just rising, the two armies had already begun to assemble on that flat wilderness.
The assembly process was without incident. At this time, both the British and Americans believed in decisive battles and generally did not resort to tricks. Even the natives, not yet at a critical juncture, preferred frontal combat.
When both sides had arranged their formations, it was precisely when the sun had fully risen.
In fact, the formations of both sides were quite similar. In the front were rows of riflemen without unified uniforms, behind them were artillery, and on the flanks were cavalry. Although the troop types looked similar, the differences were actually quite significant.
The soldiers in the front of the Western Expeditionary Force, like the natives, were equipped with standard smoothbore guns, while a large number of personnel behind them were equipped with double-barreled shotguns.
As for the artillery, there's no need to mention it; the natives only had two small several-pound cannons that the British had presumably dismantled from some fortress, while the Western Expeditionary Force had twenty standard field breech-loading cannons.
Because the location was chosen by the native side, their rear slope was more pronounced, making it very suitable for cavalry charges. However, the Pittsburgh Western Expeditionary Force had several more cannons than them.
And what was quite amusing was that both armies had several regular army officers in uniform embedded within them; the native side had British officers, and the Western Expeditionary Force had Continental army officers.
An apt analogy would be that both sides were flocks of sheep led by a few lions.
Both commanders observed the opposing situation with their monoculars, and seeing such similar circumstances, they couldn't help but want to laugh.