Final Showdown
From 1792 to 1815, the war in Europe lasted a generation's time. In order to stifle the French revolution, Austria, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Naples, Prussia, Spain and Britain formed the First Coalition in an attempt to destroy the Republic of France. The French Republican government has used various methods to defeat Coalition, such as military conscription, military reform and overall warfare. By the tenth anniversary of the death of Louis XVI, half of Europe had become the scorched earth. However Arendelle, far from the war, hoped that the war would not end soon, because Napoleon's war did not touch its land at all. Thanks to the war, all the products: timber, ships, fish, iron and weapons have a very wide market. Tons of currencies, like tides of water, flow into the pockets of exporters and factory owners, and the factories and neoclassical luxury homes have mushroomed. Expensive furniture, London fashion, indulgent spree and carefree luxury living in high society for years.
However, with the development of the war situation, especially after the Royal Navy burned Copenhagen in 1807, Arendelle's ruling class began no longer satisfied with the victory by the sea battle and the export of goods made for war, the idea of playing "liberator" to seize some or even the entire Norway's voice began to rise. Those Norwegian compatriots living to the east of the border were subjected to increasing discrimination and repression by the Kingdom of Denmark. In addition, Denmark's Norway's Sogn og Fjordane and Hedmark are rich of mineral and forestry resources, Oslo (also called Christiania at that time, for convenience of identification, the city will be called Oslo all the following) is an important business center, the nearby plains are densely populated with cultivated land. If they could unite the Norwegians on both sides, then the resulting unified state will be greatly benefited not only in the territory but also in population and in the economy. However, this does not mean that Arendelle will soon join the Coalition because the outcome of the war is still hard to predict, Napoleon's "Grande Armée" is still invincible on the European continent, so repeatedly thinking of "Do not miscalculate" and "do not join the failed side" makes the leaders of Arendelle uneasy and hesitant. At that time, Arendelle's political views were divided into three groups. The first group was mainly commercial and industrial capitalists who had close commercial relations with the Britain, Their slogan is "Do not miss the chance" and advocate for the immediate partition of Norway with Sweden with the support of the Great Britain before everything is over. The second faction is the People's Party, representing the interests of the normal citizens and the rich peasants. They do not think they should take the initiative to formally against Napoleon. The third faction has largest number of people and the greatest impact, advocate continue to wait and see. What is interesting is that the disagreements between the factions of the first and third parties took place within the two political parties (the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party) themselves. Both parties themselves split into pro-British and wait-and-see parties. Within the Liberal Party, its leader, Frans Lindmann Junior, generally maintains party discipline, However, the Conservative Party was full of disputes so much that the party fiercely debated in 1805 on the issue of which side to join in and split the new party of the Independence Party.
What happened in 1811 completely decided Arendelle's final position in the war. According to the British, on September 12, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Glorious discovered the Danish gunboat HDMS Adelaine on the Jutland Strait, After a few hours chasing and fighting, HMS Glorious won HDMS Adelaine through a hop-up war. The British found a plan from the Danish warship entitled "Champagne". The military plan consisted of two parts: 1. Sending a squadron from Trondheim on an undeclared war, use fast-warship (mostly a small gunboat) to sneak into Stavanger at night for a decapitation. 2. If the first one failed, first launch a feint in the mountains of the northeast to attract the main force of the Arendian army, attacking westward from the coast when it becomes stalemate. At a time when Britain handed over this intelligence to Arendelle, some of Arendelle's high-level military administration judged that the plan was a hoax designed by the British purely to drag Arendelle into the war(After the war the British also admitted that). Because even layman can see the absurdity of this plan with a glance: Use small gunboat(These gunships would sunk by a shot of shells, and they were also hard to be used on the choppy sea and could not effectively fight large warships) to attack a heavily fortified port with fortifications and patrolling fleets is tantamount to mass suicide;and the only available Danish combat field unit available in Norway is the 8th Brigade stationed in Oslo with only a meager 2,400 troops.
On the autumn of 15 October, Prime Minister Lindmann Junior, who knew the existence of the "Champagne" plan, disclosed the incident "accidentally" at the autumn parliament: "Yes, our capital is indeed under the threat of Denmark, intelligence agencies even have mastered the Danish specific combat plan. "This sentence is undoubtedly explosive, from the front page of the newspaper to the whisper of the streets, talking about the explosive news that Denmark is planning to invade Arendelle. On March 23, 1812, Nilsberg, the Conservative leader who had always advocated further expand the war, led his party to defeat the Liberal Party as prime minister in the general election. The first thing he did when he took office was to meet British Ambassador Sir Alexander. During this meeting, Alexander suggested that Arendelle immediately launch an attack and said that this should be the attitude of Arendelle. However, Prime Minister Nilsberg still could not resolve and asked Alexander to convey his concerns to British Prime Minister Henry Addington.
On April 24, Addington wrote a letter to Nilsberg: "Your Excellency, Napoleon and his puppets will eventually defeat, it is beyond doubt. Britain has announced its determination that no foresight person will doubt it ...We have unbridled control over the oceans and more wealth and resources. We are determined to defeat the evil Corsican dwarf and his self-defeating conspirators-One of them has been beaten black and blue, irremediable (referring to Denmark)...If Arendelle seize the opportunity in time, it will be a rare opportunity in the history of war; If Arendelle stand with us, and with all the aid that Great Britain could give,she will surely win the final victory. I am sure you are able to recognize the trend of the world. "As a material guarantee for this letter, he also told Nilsberg that a Brigade of the British Army participated in the war on Denmark.
On receipt of the letter, Nilsberg met with the King the next morning. The king called for the Minister of Army, the First Sea Lord, party's leaders of the Storting to urgently negotiate and eventually all agreed unanimously to start a land operation to seize Norway. On August 10, the United Kingdom signed a treaty with Arendelle and Sweden in London promulgating the vast majority of the territories demanded by Arendelle, Including Akershus, Hedmark, Ostfold, Sogn og Fjordane, and Faroe Islands, Svalbard, Virgin Islands; The rest of Norway and Iceland are assigned to Sweden; Britain is going to have all of Denmark's trade colonies in India.
On the morning of September 2, 20 nautical miles off the coast of Bergen, A Royal Arendian Navy flotilla Frigate, flagship frigate HArMS Seige, clashed with Danish gunboats, Arendian warships rely on the shape, twice used the hull to push the Danish gunboat. At 10:36, the Danish gunboat finally managed to fire at the HArMS Seige, Arendian warship immediately opened fire with overwhelming fire sunk six Danish gunboats. When news of the Battle off Bergen reached Stavanger on the 4th, Arendelle's senior military and military officials finally found hands-on opportunities-They are ready for the final showdown with Denmark. This is a very opportune time for a military operation, Napoleon's Grande Armée has pinned in Russia, Copenhagen surrounded by the British, both Denmark and France are unable to support this island in Norway. Very coincidentally, an agent lurking in Oslo sent a report that on September 1, the already stunned Danish gendarmerie apprehended a dozen Norway citizens in Oslo. Arendelle's propaganda machine was immediately turned on and said fellow citizens under the heel of Denmark were living in dire situation. Things have grown to such an extent that the youngest children can see that war is inevitable.
Starting in the spring of 1812, Denmark claimed to have mobilized 80,000 Landstorm throughout Norway (actual number less than 30,000), Made up of 19 Landstorm brigades and Landstorm regiment. But neither sufficient officers and noncommissioned officers nor sufficient weapons to arm them, and the powerful units on paper could only be dead meat for banzai charge. In addition, Norwegian soldiers are usually commanded by Danish officers, they do not trust these officers, but scared and contempt Danish. Those who were forced to enlist in the army often did not receive equipment and did not enter the barracks. To make matters worse, due to the corruption and incompetence of the bureaucracy, together with the sabotage of guerrillas and agents, make the supply transport very difficult, logistic supplies of these Landstorms are severely underdeveloped and horrifying malnutrition has occurred(Like South Korea's "Yebigun incident" during Korean War)-according to different statistics, about 1,500 Landstorm soldiers died of malnutrition or the resulting disease in barracks or marches.
On September 10, the coalition forces led by General Somerset of Britain and the Swedish Army commanded by Bernardotte started to enclose Oslo in both directions, On Sept. 14, Frederikstad and Tønsberg were captured, On September 15, the Royal Arendian Navy destroyed the last Danish fleet at the mouth of the Oslofjord, completely blocked the last hope of Danish for support. On Sept. 17, following a series of deceptions such as the disclosure of false intelligence, the Arendian Army suddenly launched offensive in the north and west of Oslo, The 7th Jeger Regiment captured 18 villages north of Oslo. The British 8th Dragoon Regiment on the west broke the line of defense established by the Danish Army under the cover of artillery on the next day, once reached only four miles away from Oslo, the 4th Landstorm Regiment in the city of Oslo (1100 compiled) fully intercepted to avoid a complete collapse of the front. On September 22, the 1st Squadron, Arendian Lancer Regiment reached Lillestrøm, a small town east of Oslo, rendezvoused with 7th Brigade of Sweden, cut off all roads to Oslo.
In the battle of Oslo, the Danish has nothing could do, only could use the politically competent forces in the regular army to form corps to ensure the Landstorm for suicide attack or hopeless persecution, In order to delay the time for the coalition army to attack the city. During this period, the Landstorm has been completely reduced to formed mobs, The morale and passion once evoked by "defending the homeland" have also completely disappeared, Under the propaganda of infiltrators, it quickly turned into an anti-war peace movement. The anti-war sentiment of the Landstorm then spread to the regular army through the relationship between relatives and friends, regular troops also defected, kill or arrest officers, the Landstorm and Regular Army surrender to the coalition army together-the entire regiment surrendered without combat. A large number of Danish regular forces or Landstorm tried to break or surrender to the weakest north. Since the two nations' people are almost identical in appearance, the language is quite similar, therefore, when the Arendian army captured the captive or encountered the surrender, it ordered the recitation of the prayer of the Lord, according to the "bread" is pronounced the same as Danish, can judge each other's nationality - the Norwegian directly released, the Danes will be shot on the spot.
On 5 October, after ten days of siege, the food in Oslo has barely sustained two days, average of 50 soldiers and civilians were killed every day in artillery barrage. Denmark's last Norwegian governor, Henrik Olsen, was forced to order all capable men and officers in Oslo to disperse themselves at night, The rest, including seriously wounded and ordinary residents, are left in the city to their own accord, As a result, most of them were taken revenge to death directly after they were captured, and fewer than 500 people survived the war. The next morning Arendian 11th Line Infantry Regiment saw the fortifications near the city were empty, they tentatively entered the Oslo without resistance, The main part of the Norwegian campaign ends. Since then, the coalition forces have occupied or received the rest of Norway for the remainder of the year: After being informed of the siege of Oslo, one after another uprisings and riots broke out throughout northern Norway, then they established various "autonomous government" and at last await the arrival of the coalition forces, especially the defection of several important port cities, making the coastal areas virtually invincible.
Eleven months after falling of Oslo, Denmark finally could not support it. On September 12, 1813, the Danish delegate signed the Treaty of Arendal. Denmark lost the entire Norway and his colonial empire: Ostfold and Sogn og Fjordane, Akershus, Hedmark, Faroe Islands and Svalbard were acquired by Arendelle, Sweden received the rest of Norway, Denmark's colony Iceland, And formally incorporated into Sweden as "Duchy of Nordland"(The title of "Duke of Nordland" was accepted by the former French marshal Bernadotte), In exchange, King of Arendelle promised to permanently relinquish all claims for the title "King of Norway" and permanently relinquish claim ownership of the remaining Norwegian lands, the west half of the Virgin Islands was forfeited to King of Great Britain's younger brother in the name of George III two years after being confiscated by Britain, all the Far East colonies are owned by Britain, too. Since then, the territorial revisionism and the revanchism in Denmark have been rampant, until one century later, people still could see Danish diplomats cursing the two northern neighbors on their newspapers.