Internal Difficulties

Almost simultaneously with Napoleon resolving the Toulon crisis, the France, having rapidly mobilized even more troops, also launched an offensive in the north. Their timing for this offensive was impeccable, as the Anti-French Alliance was just beginning to cause trouble when they launched their attack.

Like the fable of the swan, the pike, and the shrimp pulling a carriage together, each of the countries in the Anti-French Alliance had its own agenda. As a result, they lacked cooperation and even undermined each other.

The Britain first and foremost wanted to secure their interests in the Netherlands. Therefore, they strongly advocated focusing their main forces on the attack on Dunkirk. They surrounded Dunkirk from both land and sea, and demanded that the Prussia and Austria join the offensive against Dunkirk.

However, Dunkirk was not a very attractive target for the Austria and Prussia, so they instead tried to persuade the Britain that it was unnecessary to waste time and energy on such a "secondary objective" and to quickly transfer troops to join them in launching a decisive attack on the France on the Belgium border.

The Britain army was limited in size and its resources were largely devoted to the struggle for overseas colonies, where Britain had more tangible benefits. The Austria and Prussia tried to persuade the Britain to mobilize quickly. However, Prime Minister Pitt was unwilling to disrupt the pace of Britain national development. Therefore, Pitt adopted a more moderate approach: Britain would provide the money and weapons, while Italy would provide the manpower, to fight the France.

The Britain recruited a mercenary force of over 10,000 men in Italy and then used Austria roads to transport them to Belgium. When requesting passage from Austria, the Britain stated that these troops would be used in the fighting on the Belgium - France border. However, after the force arrived in Belgium in August, the Britain announced that due to changes in the battlefield situation, they would have to use these mercenaries in the battle of Dunkirk.

However, the Austria and Prussia claimed that they had already included this mercenary force in their battle plans. While they hadn't considered this Italy mercenary force as their main force when formulating their plans (everyone knew that these Italy mercenaries were unreliable fighters, far inferior to the mountain people or Germany mercenaries; their only advantage was that they cost less money), they believed they could at least be used for defensive duties, freeing up more manpower. Now that the Britain had suddenly broken their promise and transferred this army, their offensive was naturally impossible.

But the truth is not what they say. Recently, Her Majesty the Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire was heartbroken over the loss of her beloved lover Potemkin, to the point that she fell ill. As soon as the Empress fell ill, those guys in Poland started to stir, and even the territories under Prussia control experienced some turmoil.

The Empress's serious illness also gave the Prussia and Austria the idea of extracting more benefits from Poland. However, any such idea required military support; otherwise, it remained mere wishful thinking. Austria, bordering France, was hesitant to redeploy its troops, but Prussia was different. Prussia felt that the security of the Rhine states was, for the time being, not a problem, and that their share of France interests would be limited. Therefore, the Prussia had long been considering transferring some of their troops eastward. It was only through various means that Austria managed to keep them in check.

Upon learning that a mercenary force of over ten thousand men was to join the Belgium campaign, the Austria could no longer hold back the Prussia. Before the Italy even arrived, the Prussia had already recalled over ten thousand troops. They figured the Italy would fill the void they left behind... However...

On the opposing front, one side suddenly lost over ten thousand men, naturally creating more openings. But on the France side, the situation was entirely different. While envoys from various regions swiftly eliminated those with "German" in their names using the guillotine, they also continuously sent vast amounts of wealth and conscripted soldiers to Paris. By the end of September 1793, France had assembled an army of up to one million. Yes, these troops were mostly poorly trained and poorly equipped (because military production couldn't keep up with the conscription pace), but their morale was high. Most of their troops were not yet ready for combat, but new, well-trained troops (though their training was quite limited) were constantly being sent north by the revolutionary government. Unlike when Dumouriez rebelled, the France army had regained its morale and held a clear numerical advantage.

Taking advantage of the hesitation of the Anti-French Alliance forces, Carnot concentrated a large army in the canton of Nord. Under the urging of the special envoy (commissar) of Saint-Just, the France army launched a counterattack in early September. They first defeated the Britain army commanded by the Duke of York (later George V) at Hondschoote, and then turned towards Maubeuge, where they defeated the army of the Austria General Coburg.

France's military dangers seem to have been temporarily averted, but once the taut military thread loosens, many problems that were previously suppressed by the military crisis immediately resurface.

The first issues to emerge were economic ones.

After the Jacobins seized power, they implemented a system of in-kind requisition and various price controls to support the war effort. While this approach, similar to War Communism, ensured the country could concentrate its resources on fighting foreign enemies, it also created numerous problems.

According to the decree of September 29th, the France cantons were responsible for setting price limits on grain, while the municipalities were responsible for setting wage limits. Under this decree, generally speaking, grain prices rose by one-third compared to 1790, while people's wages generally rose by half. Everything seemed to be going quite well.

However, there is a significant imbalance in price and wage standards across France, with each county striving to raise the prices of local products while suppressing the prices of goods from other regions (otherwise, it would be difficult to sustain wage growth). This has led to the fragmentation of the national market.

On the other hand, the large-scale conscription led to a labor shortage, especially in rural areas. Although there was a bumper harvest that year, the harvesting and threshing were delayed due to a lack of manpower. Coupled with the large demand for military rations, many places experienced food shortages despite the bumper harvest, especially in some areas of southern France, where the problems were exacerbated by the war.

To put it simply, the current problem is that, given the Committee of Public Safety's control over the country and their understanding of economics, abandoning traditional market economics and directly using planning to allocate national resources is clearly far beyond their capabilities. However, abandoning these elements deeply rooted in planned economy would be politically suicidal.

Therefore, the Committee of Public Safety must continue to deepen the revolution in order to truly control the country and overcome the current crisis.

But this requires pressure. Previously, foreign interventionist forces provided this pressure. But now, an ironic situation has arisen: the previous series of victories have fundamentally shaken the legitimacy of the revolutionary government.

If there's no pressure, then create it artificially. At the very least, drag a dead tiger into the mix and give it a good beating. So Robespierre chose to teach this dead tiger.

Prior to this, the revolutionary government had already cracked down on and plundered the Church through the Clergy Law. Now, those remaining in France were mostly clergy willing to swear allegiance to Parliament. But now, the Republic needed an internal enemy to unite everyone. Thus, the remaining clergy, and Christianity as a whole (including Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and any Protestantism), became the Republic's designated enemies.

On October 24, the National Assembly passed a bill to implement the Republican Calendar in France. This move effectively sounded the clarion call for a full-scale war against Christianity and the complete expulsion of Christianity faith from France.

Carnot returned home utterly dejected. He had no interest in the "Republican Calendar" or anything like that. While some people in later generations might find the Republican Calendar like "Brumaire," "Frimaire," "Nivôse," "Germinal," and "Flower Moon" incredibly beautiful and sophisticated, Carnot saw it as utterly pointless and unnecessarily complicated. Moreover, although he was the primary contributor to the French Army's series of victories, just as the authority and legitimacy of the Committee of Public Safety had been weakened by these victories, Carnot's own standing had also declined as a result. Therefore, his opposition to the Republican Calendar and the anti- Christianity movement was virtually ineffective.

"These guys are getting crazier and crazier! Especially those power-grabbing thugs from the Paris Commune! If France lets them continue like this, it's doomed sooner or later!" Carnot said to his wife, still furious.

His wife turned pale with fright upon hearing this. She looked around and whispered, "Are you crazy? How can you say something like that? Are you out of your mind?"

"What can they do?" Carnot lowered his voice, still unconvinced. "Damn it, right now, Napoleon is in the south, Joseph is locked in his laboratory! There's not even anyone to talk to..."

"Why don't you go to the lab to find Joseph? Or have him come to the War Department to report on the research?"

"Hmm, that's one way. Joseph has a lot of ideas, maybe he has a good one," Carnot said.

In contrast to Carnot, whose status declined due to the victory, Joseph's status actually rose somewhat. The Grenade developed in the laboratory he oversaw proved highly effective in the Battle of Toulon and the northern campaigns. Napoleon, in his battle reports, called them "cannons in the hands of infantry" and "Jupiter's thunder," praising them and saying that without the help of Grenade, they would have found it difficult to capture the crucial Fort Mulgrave with such minimal losses in such a short time, nor would they have been able to so easily repel the subsequent Britain counterattack.

Meanwhile, in the north, Saint-Just also expressed his admiration for the products from Joseph's laboratory.

"This new weapon played a decisive role. Well-trained, strong soldiers could throw it fifty or sixty meters away with relatively accurate aim. This distance is not much different from the usual range of enemy volley fire. In Hondschoote, the Britain, as usual, tried to charge at us with bayonets. They were routed halfway there by grenades. In Maubeuge, Grenade also played a decisive role. Especially skirmishers equipped with Grenade were a nightmare for the enemy... Therefore, I suggest that Grenade production should be carried out as the most urgent and important military task. And everything concerning Grenade must be treated as a top state secret..."

For this achievement, Joseph was promoted to brigadier general. Of course, his rank was still below Napoleon's. When accepting this honor, Joseph highly praised Lavoisier's contributions to the development of the Grenade. He told Charles, an observer sent by the Committee of Public Safety, that the explosives and fuses used in the Grenade were the work of the research group led by Lavoisier, and suggested that the explosives be named after Lavoisier.

However, the Committee of Public Safety believed that Lavoisier was a captured enemy, and all his research results were simply returning what he had stolen from the people. Therefore, Lavoisier did not deserve such an honor. Consequently, the explosive was named Republic No. 1 Explosive, and the Grenade was named Equality No. 1 Grenade. Officially, it was claimed to be the collective achievement of the Military Technology Laboratory. However, the soldiers preferred to call it "Bonaparte's Little Melon."

It is said that after Joseph told Lavoisier about the Committee of Public Safety's decision regarding the naming of the Grenade, Lavoisier muttered, "It doesn't matter. I've already contributed enough to science, enough to leave a thick chapter in the history of science. Besides, it would be an insult to me to name a weapon that protected these thugs after me! Hmm... that's it!"

But after a while, the man said, "Oh, Joseph, if I were Britain, how much money could I make just from the patent fees for inventing Nitrated Starch? In France, you don't even have the right to name it, let alone a patent."

Joseph could only comfort him, saying, "Mr. Lavoisier, as long as you take care of your health, maintain a healthy diet as I suggested, and exercise regularly every day, you will surely receive your patent fees in the future."

"Speaking of running, it has definitely made my body feel much better, to the point that I've even gained more appetite. And every day when I run, I see that thug named Charles hiding behind an iron window watching me."

"I told him this was a way of disciplining you," Joseph said. "Of course, that was just to fool him."

"I understand," Lavoisier said. "What I really mean is, I'm running in the sunlight, while he's huddled behind a dark iron window. I really don't know who looks more like a prisoner."