Chapter 13: Napoleon's Plan

Actually, in terms of latitude alone, Paris is a little further north than Harbin. But because of the warm Atlantic current, winters here are quite mild, and even at the end of November, the sun is still warm in Paris.

Joseph walked forward along the street that was littered with dead leaves, a short figure following behind him.

"Ah, Napoleon, you have a good idea. But I don't think your move will do anything, and even, most likely, this approach will only lead to others turning on you." Joseph shook his head gently as he walked away, "Napoleon, you know what I admire most about you? What I admire most about you is that you see something and you are brave enough to do it. You believe that you can overcome all odds and nothing can stop you. You never let 'I don't dare' follow 'I want'. This is a very good quality. Many heroes in history have overcome all difficulties, accomplished great deeds and become immortal legends because of this quality. But one thing you have to remember is that there is only a thin line between confidence and pride. Often, you should think more when you do things. First, figure out where your goals are and what is really good for you; then think about where the boundaries of your power are, and what are the things you can't reach in your own power for the time being and can't force yourself to do. I never worry that you'll lose your courage if you overthink things, but I'm always worried that you'll suffer by overstimating yourself and understimating others. Take this one, for instance, and tekk me, what is your purpose in taking such action?"

Napoleon listened with a smug smile on his face.

"O my foolish brother, do you really think that I would worry about the French military schools teaching all those French nobles to be four-faced swine? No, no, no, is it a bad thing for these French noble officers to be stupid? If every one of them were as clever and brave as I am, it would be our business that would have no future at all."

"And what are you doing this for?" Joseph asked offhandedly, forgetting even to denounce Napoleon for actually daring to violate his patent.

"O my foolish brother, is your poor intellect really not enough? Can't even think of something as simple as this?" Napoleon hastened to seize this rare opportunity to give back as much as he could of what he had previously received from Joseph.

Joseph stood still and turned his face to stare at Napoleon. Napoleon raised his face triumphantly and locked eyes with Joseph.

"Hahahahaha!" Joseph suddenly burst out laughing. "O, my foolish brother, you're not trying to graduate early with this, are you?"

"What?" The smug smile on Napoleon's face suddenly froze. "What makes you think of that?"

In his previous life, Joseph had seen a movie about Napoleon, which briefly mentioned that the maverick Napoleon had graduated early from the Paris Military Academy in Paris after only one year of studying because of his outstanding grades. Joseph didn't think much of it when he read it at the time. Still, now that he thinks about it more carefully, as far as Napoleon's temper is concerned nowadays and his so obvious as to be almost undisguised hostility to the French aristocracy, this early graduation isn't expected to be much of a reward any way you look at it; it's only...

"Your accusations against them are hard to hear, but wherever you put them, they are at least completely correct in their reasoning. Correct as in saying 'you should be pious and chaste' to a Catholic priest, so while your accusations against them will offend them, they can't use it as a reason to penalize you. Then what, your grades in all subjects basically won't be anything for them to find faulth with - well, you Napoleon must think so - then what, these guys will hate you extraordinarily and want to get rid of you in a hurry, but they can't get rid of you with a punishment, so the next best thing they can do is to say that you're getting outstanding grades and can graduate early. After all, as far I know, there is a precedent for this at the Paris Military Academy. Well, my foolish brother, you think so, don't you?"

"What the hell!" Napoleon said. "As much as I want to deny it, you, Joseph, you aren't too stupid."

Knowing that Napoleon, despite his stiff appearance, must have been very shocked in his mind, Joseph couldn't help but be amused as well and almost ventured a comment, "Even you, a monkey head, want to jump out of the Buddha's hand?" But when he thought about the fact that there were still no widely known translations of Journey to the West today, an allusion that Napoleon was not aware of, he swallowed the words and then sighed with a rather desperate sigh.

"How about this for my solution? What do you think the chances of success are?" Although it was a bit of a disappointment for Napoleon to be outwitted by his brother, he had long since gotten used to it, so his emotions weren't really hit too hard. At this moment, he then asked this:.

"That's up to you, Napoleon; you're going to have to make it academically impossible for the guys who hate you to find anything wrong with you if you want to realize your plans," Joseph said. "As far as I know, most of the students at the Paris Military Academy are sons of nobles."

"Not most, but almost all," Napoleon corrected.

"Most of these fellows do live extravagantly, indulging, as you say, in hedonistic pleasures, and spending their precious time in drinking, bragging, enjoying good food, and flaunting their carriages, their servants, and their mistresses. While you intellect isn't particularly impressive, it's still easy for you to beat a wastes like those noble's academically. Since alcohol and beauty had long ago destroyed their already modest intelligence, today, their level of intelligence was not much better than that of the red-haired gorilla. Defeating these red-haired gorillas is really a matter of course. But, the arostocracy is not all such red-headed gorillas. The Paris Military Academy is so big, after all, that it's still possible for one or two very good guys to merge from it. So don't take it too lightly."

"That I know for sure. And I'll study to improve myself as much as possible, not to overwhelm anyone. So I won't relax myself wherever I am," Napoleon replied.

Joseph was quite convinced of this. On the point of "love of learning," Napoleon can indeed be regarded as a role model; his life, whether he was leading the army over the snow-covered alps or was imprisoned on the island of St. Helena, will always be in the hands of the book to study.

"Then I think you should have a good chance of graduating early. But after graduation, your assignments may not go too well," Joseph said.

"What good could go to a Corsican like us, even if I were to be their follower and flatter them every day? Besides, our future lies in Corsica, not in France," Napoleon replied unconcernedly.

Joseph almost laughed out loud when he heard that answer, for he knew that later, during the French Revolution, Napoleon had quarreled with Paili, the idol in his heart at the time, precisely because of his opposition to the independence of Corsica, and that in the end, it had even developed to the point of a military confrontation.

"It's just that Corsica is still so small." Joseph sighed.

"You're right." Napoleon said, "This is indeed a serious problem. Even if we could all fight them one by one, it would be hard to beat France on our own. But France has serious internal problems today, and we may, in the future, be able to get support from other countries."

"Like Mr. Paoli in England today?" Joseph said.

"Aye. But I don't think England may be reliable either." Napoleon said, "The English have betrayed others more than once, and it's all right to let them give France old trouble; let them bleed for Corsica? I'm afraid they'd rather have Corsica bleed for them. They'll pay for it at best. This is how Britain helped Prussia in the Seven Year's War. But Corsica is so small, how much blood can it shed? But because of the difficulties, I am filled with fighting spirit instead."

"My brother, you sound like a Virgil or a Homer character when you say that," Joseph said.

"Ah, my brother, that is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard from you."

Napoleon was pleased to say, "You're right, I'm not one of those weak quacks of this age; I'm a hero of Homer's time."

Ah, my foolish brother. You must remember that a man's native is like the numerator of a fraction, and his opinion of himself is the denominator of the fraction; the larger the denominator, the smaller the value of the fraction."

"Humph!" Napoleon didn't care about Joseph's habitual sarcasm; he'd gotten used to it a long time ago.

"Well, by the way, Joseph, you're due to graduate soon; what are your future plans?" Napoleon asked.

"Me? I'll probably go back to Corsica first and become a priest," Joseph replied.

"You're lying," Napoleon said. "Your eyes tell me that your mind has been wild for a long time,that you have long felt that Corsica was too small for you, and I don't really think you're bullish on the future of the church."

"Okay then," Joseph said. His brother being too smart was a problem. "I'm going to leave Paris for a while, hide out in Corsica, and keep my eyes open for a change."

"A change?" Napoleon said. "What do you mean?"

"It is of course a repetition of the British story of those days in France," Joseph said.

"A British story?" Napoleon said. "What story are you telling?"

"The story of Lord Protector Cromwell, of course," Joseph said. "Have you seen what has been disclosed in recent times about the income and expenditures of the royal family?"

"No," Napoleon said. "I don't hang out with my classmates much, and I don't usually go out much."

If the information is reliable, the royal family can't make ends meet and is on the verge of bankruptcy." Joseph said, "Now that the crown is in a great deal of debt, the nobles, the rich people, are no longer willing to lend money to the crown today. I reckon the Crown will just have to raise taxes, and once they're imposed on a large scale, with the way things are going up and down in France right now, a revolution is just around the corner."