Chapter 1213 Attacking Destiny

Isaac Newton became the smartest man in Britain after universal gravitation was recognized. Not only was he a university professor, but when he was director of the Royal Mint in 1717, he also set gold at 3 pounds, 17 shillings and 10 pence per ounce.

, this price lasted until the 20th century. If the British national debt was 570 million pounds, which would require 3,930 tons of gold, there would probably be no other place on earth that could provide that much gold except the country's treasury.

Egypt once had a glorious civilization, and there may be a lot of gold in the tombs of the Pharaohs, but after thousands of years of looting by tomb robbers, there is almost nothing left. The United States has just experienced the Revolutionary War, and George Washington died last year.

The newly-appointed President Jackson was born in the military. It would not be easy for Britain to recapture the American colonies. In comparison, trade with East Asian countries such as India has become the main source of revenue.

The East India Company was not unique to Britain. There were also East India Companies in France and the Netherlands. However, the French East India Company went bankrupt in 1794 after the Revolution.

The Dutch East India Company lost its naval power to the British, and its goods and merchandise were repeatedly plundered. In order to strengthen its armed forces, it had to increase military expenditures, which resulted in a huge burden on funds, unclear accounts of internal personnel, corruption, etc., which eventually led to bankruptcy.

The French East India Company also went bankrupt a year after it went bankrupt.

Due to the war, French and British merchant ships were unable to communicate normally, and as trade shrank, it was naturally impossible to obtain more tax revenue through trade. At that time, the South China Sea Company used the Spanish to allow Britain to carry out trade in the American colonies and undertook low-interest treasury bonds, but after

The Peace of Utrecht signed after the War of the Spanish Throne only obtained from Spain the right to transport one ship of black slaves to Spanish America every year, which was completely different from what the shareholders had promised to them.

In order to prevent themselves from losing money, these profiteers dared to say and do anything. A smart man like Sir Isaac Newton also lost a lot of money in this financial crisis that swept the country and fell into collective unconsciousness.

When it happens, personal wisdom, experience and judgment will become very blurred. It is a torrent that cannot be stopped by the power of a single person.

It is not easy to calm down a man's fanatical mind. Death is the best way. The Black Death did shake some of the influence of Catholicism in Western Europe, but it was not the lever that pried it off the altar.

It was the Protestants and scientists like Isaac Newton who were refused to teach Newton's mechanics system by the Jesuit monopolized education system and drove them out of France. Only then did the French education community begin to accept new knowledge and reintroduce these priests.

When we came back, the first people to oppose were these intellectuals who had accepted the "enlightenment".

Napoleon was a realist at heart. Although Pomona's proposal sounded interesting, he didn't care much. He mentioned that the movement to abolish God played a role in expanding the counter-revolutionary rebellion.

Almost all farmers in France are religious. To count the population in the old days, the priest only needed to count how many people came during Sunday mass, how many people did not come for some reason, and then estimated whether anyone had given birth to children in the recent period. Basically,

The population calculation of a village has been completed.

During the Reign of Terror, the Jacobins drove a large number of Catholic and Orthodox Christians out of the monasteries, causing strong dissatisfaction among the believers. Napoleon was the younger brother of Robespierre and discovered that if he wanted to get ahead in France, it was necessary for Corsica to

For outsiders, the only way out is to find a strong backing. From the time he participated in suppressing the strike of Lyon silk workers at the age of 17 to the age of 23, Napoleon was quite depressed. He even considered leaving the army and following the example of his brother Joseph.

Plans to start a silk business.

Fortunately, his six years of frontline career were not in vain. Although he did not know as many generals as when he was in Italy, he accumulated a lot of battlefield experience. Although he was still very young during the siege of Toulon, some of his ideas were considered by the veterans to be whimsical.

, but they are much more practical than those "geniuses" who come in fancy military uniforms and carriages.

Napoleon was very eloquent, but compared to his poor love poems, his area of ​​eloquence was military. As we were chatting, the topic somehow changed from the church to the siege of Toulon.

He talked endlessly about the performance of those "geniuses" when they first went to the battlefield. Pomona sat on the luxurious gilded sofa and listened. Commander-in-chief Carto was a painter before joining the revolution. The first thing he did after taking office was to let

General Dopp regarded all noble officers as potential royalist rebels and planned to carry out an internal purge.

Dopp was originally a dentist with no experience other than a strong political background. He led a group of inexperienced lieutenants who had also just graduated from the military academy to inspect the position. The "geniuses" looked around the position and asked where the bunker was.

Captain Bonaparte told them, "There are no bunkers here, only our patriotism." Then he wrote a letter to Paris, asking Paris to recommend a commander who could really fight.

A captain dared to say that the commander-in-chief was incompetent. After the letter was sent, Paris did not really send a new commander, but Carto must have been "reminded" of some kind, and his attitude changed dramatically. Napoleon was promoted to

Battalion Commander, and arranged according to Napoleon's suggestions.

The city of Toulon has a high and solid wall that seems impenetrable, but there is a highland and two turrets in the southwest of Toulon. As long as those two turrets are occupied, the British fleet docked in Toulon will be bombarded by France.

scope.

Of course, the British commander also knew the importance of these two forts, but in order to capture it, he first had to occupy Cape Ker. One day when Napoleon was patrolling the coastline, he discovered through his telescope that the British troops were landing, and he quickly went to Cape Ker.

Thor mobilized troops. Although Carto agreed with Napoleon's plan, he did not send 1,000 men to reinforce him in attacking the highlands as Napoleon requested. Instead, he only sent 500 men. In the case of insufficient troops, Napoleon still launched the attack, but

This attack failed to be effective due to insufficient troops, and not only that, but also suffered heavy casualties. Carto and Napoleon's superior, Fei Leilong, attributed the defeat to Napoleon's overstepping of command and disrupting battlefield discipline.

If this crime went to a military court, a person who was not careful would be sentenced to death. Napoleon was decadent and depressed all day long, so he took his family to Toulon and planned to say a final goodbye to them. As a result, Napoleon's mother Letizia asked him not to give up.

, after the discussion between the two, Napoleon once again leapfrogged the hierarchy and sent a letter to Paris, complaining about the real reason for the defeat at Cape Ker, and once again requested to send a commander.

By mid-November, because Cartot was injured and disabled in the war, the experienced General Digomier replaced Cartot as the supreme commander of the French army in the Battle of Toulon.

As the famous battle that gave birth to Napoleon, Pomona had heard of the Siege of Toulon as an "enemy soldier". Charles O'Hara had participated in the suppression of the War of Independence and surrendered to George Washington.

The general was captured again twelve years later, this time to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom he surrendered his sword.

He is also considered a "celebrity". Another interesting thing is that when he surrendered to Washington for the first time, Count Rochamp, as the son of the commander of the French Volunteer Army, experienced the ceremony of handing over his sword. The two battles of Toulon

Years later, Britain and France exchanged prisoners, and the British exchanged Count Rochamp for O'Hara. The British were firing artillery again that day, perhaps because they accidentally hit the French ammunition depot a few days ago, so the firing was particularly vigorous. I want to see

Let's see if we're lucky enough to blow up another one.

Dopp's daily task was to read revolutionary articles on the battlefield and walk around to reach the headquarters. As a result, a cannonball hit Dopp's adjutant that day. The adjutant was blown into bloody mud and was splashed with blood.

The general was so frightened that he ordered a retreat on the spot. In Napoleon's words, "He cried like a woman."

This time the officers again blamed Napoleon for the defeat.

After the withdrawal, Napoleon secretly arranged heavy artillery, disguised with olive branches, and planned to bombard the "little Gibraltar". As a result, Dopp may have felt that the way he screamed and retreated in front of the soldiers was ugly, so he came back to inspect the new position.

Just when Napoleon returned to the command post to drink water, he ordered the artillerymen to test the power of the heavy artillery.

This was good, the position was exposed, and the enemy started shelling again, but this time the coalition's artillery did not completely destroy the artillery position. They felt a huge threat, and sent 7,000 troops to attack the French fort the next day. The French army was outnumbered.

, Napoleon led his troops to retreat from the secret passage. At this time, both sides of the exit of the secret passage were occupied by the coalition forces. On the left was the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and on the right was the British army. Napoleon asked the soldiers to shoot at the Kingdom of Sardinia first, and then at the British army.

Both sides thought that enemy troops were shooting at them from the opposite positions, and then they began to shoot at each other. Napoleon took the opportunity to lead his soldiers to retreat into the jungle.

At this moment, he saw a British officer wearing a gorgeous red uniform patrolling the battlefield on the high slope. Napoleon asked a sharpshooter to shoot him. The officer was so frightened that he rolled down the high slope. The French army captured him. This man

It was Charles Omaha, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, for which Napoleon was promoted to major general.

"What would you like to drink?" Perhaps because he had been talking for too long, Napoleon poured himself a glass of water.

Even the cup he drinks from is made of gold, but even a cup made of gold is cheaper than the porcelain shipped from China. When that kind of fragile product reaches Europe, not many of it can be used, even if it is sold locally.

It is very cheap, and the high shipping price also makes porcelain priceless.

"No, thank you, I'm not thirsty."

Napoleon didn't care so much and drank it all by himself.

This is also a strange thing. Many people often experience thirst in the middle of the night and get up to drink water. If they really feel thirsty, why don't they wake up?

"When I was a child, I often watched the sea alone." After drinking the water, Napoleon looked at the pink wall and said, "The waves kissed the reef on the shore tens of thousands of times, turning it from a rock into a

Sand, since then I have believed that as long as you have perseverance and a strong will, nothing is impossible, but why does Josephine still treat me badly no matter how many times I kiss her?"

Pomona recalled Napoleon's "daydream". He thought that Josephine was waiting for him at the Tuileries Palace and sharing his worries for his career. However, in fact, it was not the same when he returned to Paris.

"You didn't hear anything about it before you returned to Paris?" Pomona asked, knowingly.

If he didn't know, why would he have a little Cleopatra in Cairo?

"General Juno told me. Joseph knew it but didn't tell me at all." Napoleon held the golden cup as if he wanted to crush it. "I know there are many little prodigals around her, and I have tried my best to

I managed to drive them away, but she is not a well-behaved woman after all."

"Maybe your brother doesn't want you to be distracted," Pomona said. "The battlefield is so dangerous, but it's that General Juno. Why is he, an outsider, meddling in so many other things?"

Napoleon did not answer her.

"If you look at it from another angle, you will find that your brother is very worried about you. Learn to control your emotions, General, and don't let your feelings become your problem."

"You are different from the legendary witch." Napoleon said, "I think you know those rumors on the streets."

"Oh, yes, how could I not know." Pomona smiled and shook her head, "Witches are all lovers of Satan."

"What keeps you loyal to your husband? Because of your faith?" He looked back at Pomona.

"I don't believe that you will go to hell after you make a small mistake." Pomona said hesitantly, "But I do fear being punished by fate."

"Do you believe that God will punish you by changing your destiny?" Napoleon asked.

"I would rather say that I am in awe, so that I will be cautious when doing things. Paris is not like battlefields and wilderness. It is not enough to be brave and fearless."

"Have you ever thought about applying for French citizenship? There are some things I can't say to a foreign woman." He walked up to Pomona and suddenly bent down and smelled her.

"What are you doing!" She hid on the other side of the sofa alertly.

"You smell like a French woman." Napoleon smirked. "Believe me, no one can distinguish a woman's body scent better than a soldier."

She found this self-proclaimed humorous metaphor disgusting.

Then Bonaparte sat down next to her, and she almost jumped up.

"Go over there!" She pointed to the other end of the sofa.

"Why should I obey your orders?" He said enthusiastically as if he felt like he was playing a game.

"You have offended me."

"How about going out with me?" He put his legs in riding boots on the coffee table, looking relaxed and comfortable.

"No..." Pomona shut up mid-sentence.

"I promise that I will maintain etiquette in public places and you will not be offended." Napoleon supported his big head with his arms. "Or would you prefer to meet in private?"

"I don't want him to hear the gossip," Pomona said. "He's going to be very disappointed in me."

"There is a scar on my leg, which was left by the British." Napoleon patted his thigh. "I remember that day was the 16th. The French launched a general offensive. It rained heavily that day. All
To be continued...