Chapter 1: My brother Napoleon

In the past few days, the city of Ajaccio has been soaked in a torrent of rain, and the rolling waves of the sea show no sign of stopping. The endless, heavy rain, thick and sticky, rushed down towards the bay from the heights of the sky and seemed to never dry up. The sea is like a gray, soft sponge, swelling in the confused bay.

However in the continuous rain, the surface of the water did not seem to move. It was just an imperceptible and wide bulge far away, raising a hazy vapor on the sea toward the harbor surrounded by the wet rain. A piece of water vapor rises in the city itself, passing over the water-drenched city wall to meet the water vapor on the sea. No matter which direction people face, they seem to breathe water, and the air can finally be drunk.

In this water vapor, the eldest child of the Bonaparte family, Joseph Bonaparte, who was thin and long like a bamboo pole, was holding an umbrella along the beach on the coast, reaching out into the sea on a cliff. The cliff was now stained with the endless rainwater as blue-grey as the sea, and it stretched into the bay like an arm.

In the dry summer in the Mediterranean, Joseph and his brothers and sisters often come here to fish from the reefs under the cliffs or look for all kinds of shell oysters. At this time, their little dwarf brother, the second-eldest child of the Bonaparte family, would take a book by himself and run into a small cave in the middle of the cliff to read.

"But now that it's raining, did this uncomfortable guy run into the cave again?" Joseph muttered in his heart as he walked toward the cliff.

The guy who doesn't worry about other people is his second brother, Napoleon Bonaparte, who is destined to make a big mark in history. But at this time, his majesty, the emperor of France, who will be a big shocker in the future, is still just a headache child.

Among Joseph's seven younger siblings, Napoleon is the one that gives him the most headache. This guy may be ridiculed because of his lack of growth, so he has a strange personality. Even among brothers and sisters, there are not many people who can get along well with him. And the small Napoleon was still a violent maniac. Once he is ridiculed or has conflicts with others for other reasons, he always prefers to directly resolve disputes through violence.

To be honest, Napoleon's body shape is actually not suitable for this method. Because theoretically speaking, fighting depends on strength, and strength is inseparable from body shape. Otherwise, why should the boxing match be divided into heavyweights? Since size and strength alone are not enough, Napoleon was keen on using violence to solve problems. As a result, the little dwarf developed two sets of methods to make up for his lack of strength.

The first trick is to use unconventional means to attack weaknesses. For example, while others are unprepared, he bites them with his teeth or attacks someone's vital point with his knees.

 The second trick is to "sue the wicked first." This trick is generally used to deal with his brothers. Anyone with many brothers didn't fight with their brothers when they were young. Every time there is a fight, when their mother Letizia rushes to stop it in a panic, she is the first to file a complaint, and she will most likely act like "I have been wronged so much." That is Napoleon.

And because Napoleon had already practiced how to pretend to be pitiful and how to deceive his mother many times before he started doing it, every time he beat other brothers first. The other brothers were scolded by their mother in the end.

 The second trick is to "sue the wicked first." This trick is generally used to deal with his brothers. Anyone with many brothers didn't fight with their brothers when they were young. Every time there is a fight, when their mother Letizia rushes to stop it in a panic, she is the first to file a complaint, and she will most likely act like "I have been wronged so much." 

And because Napoleon had already practiced how to pretend to be pitiful and how to deceive his mother many times before he started doing it, every time he beat his own brothers first. His brothers were scolded by their mother in the end.

　　 In this way, the brothers don't like Napoleon very much, but everyone is a little afraid of him and is unwilling to go against his wishes. Except for one person, that person is not only afraid of Napoleon's set but can even dominate Napoleon. This is Napoleon's eldest brother, Joseph. This is because Napoleon and Joseph once had a conflict.

Following the previous practice, Napoleon first took action. Taking advantage of Joseph's defense, he kicked Joseph's belly severely. At that time, the unsuspecting Joseph was kicked backward and fell to the ground. The back of his head hit a sharp stone. He was immediately gone and unconscious. Little Napoleon was also completely frightened and panicked. And he then quickly called their mother.

Joseph fainted for two days before waking up. After waking up, not only did he not recognize his family, but he couldn't even speak. No, to be precise, he suddenly no longer speaks the Corsican dialect (a kind of Italian). When he opens his mouth to speak, it is a strange language that people cannot understand. It sounds a bit like English, but there are many different languages mixed into it. The family thought he had been possessed by the devil.

(According to the relevant documents of the Catholic Church, a language that no one understands suddenly will be spoken, which is a typical manifestation of a ghost possessing someone.) If it is not for Joseph's father, Carlos, who is a noble (although it is only a declining noble), the ending will be very tragic. Carlo invited the bishop, Minier, to give Joseph an exorcism ceremony.

The effect of this ritual is obvious. After the ritual is completed, Joseph has not fully recovered—he still cannot speak the Corsican dialect, and his memory has not yet recovered—but at least he no longer speaks strange and frightening things. It may be a language from hell.

"The devil was expelled from his body." Bishop Minier said, "but it's like the house was lit by a fire. Although we put out the fire, the rest is probably just a ruin. The devil took possession of a person. The body will cause the same damage as the fire, or even more serious damage. Now although the devil has been expelled, it is very difficult to rebuild the house, and even if the damage is eventually restored, it is also You can only look at the will of God."

"Amen!" Carlo, Letizia, and Joseph's brothers and sisters all said so.

Then Carlo donated thirty francs to the diocese (in that era, this was not a small amount of money) and asked the Bishop of Menier to take Joseph to the church for a period of recovery. After all, in the sacred church, the damage caused by the devil should make Joseph able to recover faster.

Obviously, Carlo's decision was quite wise. Joseph recovered fairly quickly in the church. Under the guidance of the bishop, within three months, he learned how to speak and write Italian and even learned to use Latin. Bishop Menier always likes to take Joseph by his side and tell everyone about him: "How wonderful is the will of God? You see, the devil once invaded this man's body. When I gave the name of God, when expelling the devil from his body, I only saw a wilderness that had been burned by fire.

But the light of God shining on him caused saplings to grow again in this wilderness. And also let this sapling grow rapidly, and in a blink of an eye, it was about to grow from a small sapling to a real tree. Praise the Almighty and All-good God." In his view, Joseph's recovery is not just a manifestation of divine grace. In a sense, it is also an expression of his piety.

"Amen." The person who heard it said the same and stretched out his hand to draw a cross on his chest.

After he was convinced that Joseph had fully recovered, Bishop Menier asked Carlo to take Joseph back home. Everyone found that the kind Joseph they knew was back again. It's just that he is much quieter than before, and he is obsessed with reading. He even started to learn French all by himself.

Letizia, their mother, is pleased with the change in her son's eyes. She believes that her son can be okay and be able to become so good, which is entirely God's grace. To this end, she donated more francs to the diocese to express her gratitude to God. Because of this, if anyone came to tell her that Joseph was not good, she would not listen at all. Because her son has received God's grace, how could he do bad things?

Therefore, the means by which Napoleon first filed a complaint was useless against Joseph. If Napoleon tried to push something bad on Joseph, Letizia would reach out her hand, twist his ears, and let him go to the icon of the Virgin Mary to confess his mistake of slandering his brother. 

The clever little Napoleon quickly discovered this, so he could only compromise and show respect to his older brother Joseph.

Of course, the change in Napoleon's attitude towards his elder brother Joseph is not just because the eldest brother now has his mother's unconditional trust. It's also because his big brother is very different now than before. In the past, although the eldest brother had a generous personality, he was stupid. Yes, it is stupid. Stupid as a goose.

But now, the eldest brother has completely changed; with a little bit of his own careful thinking, when he lies, the eldest brother can see through it. It's just that, although he saw through his brothers trap, he didn't expose it and never stepped on the trap dug by Napoleon.

In addition, the eldest brother has become knowledgeable; he has read a lot of books and understood a lot of things. Napoleon had a lot of things he didn't understand, and he could ask his brother questions, and with his quirky questions, his brother could probably give convincing answers.

Of course, he also has a lot of dislikes. One thing he disliked the most was that Joseph always liked to reach out and rub his hair when answering Napoleon's questions. One sentence: "My stupid brother, this is the problem."

Napoleon got into trouble again today. He beat up the neighbor's child, Paul. The attack was too heavy, and he fainted. (One of Napoleon's own fighting experiences, summed up, is that as long as you start, don't shrink your hands; you must see through it to the end.)

Paul's father, Mr. Giovanni, is Carlo's friend. He has only one son. So as soon as he saw Paul fainting, Napoleon immediately realized that his father might beat him severely, so he ran away before everyone reacted.