Watching the Tigers Fight from the Mountain

During his time in the south, Napoleon was busy retraining his army and drafting new operational guidelines, because the "Little Melon of Bonaparte" had brought about such a profound change in warfare. First, any line or column formation that existed before became obsolete after the appearance of the "Little Melon," because the skirmishers equipped with it posed an immense threat.

In the past, a skirmisher firing at a column could at most knock down one person with a single shot, while the column could also take him down in a counterattack. Most of the time, skirmishers were more valuable than privates (skirmishers needed a certain level of independent combat capability), so the threat was relatively limited.

But things are different now. A single "Little Melon" thrown at you can cause far more damage than a bullet. According to figures from the "Military Technology Research Institute," each "Little Melon" produces an average of more than thirty cast iron fragments upon detonation, and each fragment has the lethality equivalent to a bullet within a range of twenty to thirty-five meters. (Because the performance of the Republic No. 1 Explosive is unstable, the kill radius of the Little Melon" varies considerably.)

In this way, a single "Little Melon" thrown by a skirmisher could result in casualties of several or even a dozen people. Moreover, throwing a "Little Melon" is much faster than firing a bullet. In the time it takes to reload a bullet, skirmishers can throw dozens of "Little Melon." If an army rigidly adheres to a dense formation, it will be utterly routed once it encounters a small group of skirmishers equipped with "Little Melon."

Therefore, almost all French Army who witnessed the performance of the "Little Melon" on the battlefield, whether it was Napoleon in the south or Joubert in the north, realized that since the "Little Melon" came into being, skirmishers would inevitably become the main form of combat for soldiers on the battlefield. However, no one knew how to effectively use skirmishers equipped with the "Little Melon." Therefore, Napoleon, who had previously been in charge of building the "Red Army," was tasked with researching an efficient way to use skirmishers in combat and compiling a set of operational guidelines to guide the future operations of the entire French Army.

Besides this matter, another important thing for Napoleon was to coordinate his statements with his entire family to ensure they told the same story, so that Joseph wouldn't find out about what was happening outside Port of Toulon. To be honest, the fact that his troops weren't recalled but instead stationed in the south to suppress local rebellions and develop new tactics was a real relief to Napoleon.

During this period, Napoleon and Joseph also exchanged some letters. Of course, due to Joseph's special circumstances, all his correspondence with anyone had to be reviewed by the Committee of Public Safety. Furthermore, it could only be sent after obtaining the signatures of three members of the Committee of Public Safety. In addition, every letter he sent was archived by the Committee of Public Safety as a highly confidential document for future reference. The safe containing his letters was said to be made by His Majesty the King himself.

Of course, the same applied to his reply to Joseph. Under such circumstances, Joseph could not possibly discuss political matters with his unreliable brothers in his letters, even though he desperately wanted to advise Napoleon that in times like these, he must be more timid, even more timid, and if he were always timid, the Bonaparte Family would be saved. However, he dared not utter a single word, not even a cryptic one— Robespierre was a good lawyer, and lawyers are masters of wordplay.

Therefore, the letters Joseph wrote to Napoleon generally consisted of a few ordinary greetings, and the main content was a discussion of tactical details.

Although Joseph wasn't a military scholar before his transmigration, he has been in charge of military affairs since then, especially in the past few years. Even without the added knowledge gained from his transmigration, he is now a genuine expert. Furthermore, with Joseph knowledge from his later life as a reference, his opinions are all the more valuable. Even Joseph Saint-Just was full of praise for them.

Joseph hid in the "Military Technology Research Institute" largely to escape the current chaotic situation, especially since, after the external enemy was defeated, various contradictions within the Jacobins also emerged, making the situation extremely chaotic.

Carnot ordered Joseph to come to the War Department to report to him, largely because he wanted to know Joseph's views on the current situation.

It is said that the two had a long discussion in the War Department office, but both remained tight-lipped about what they discussed, citing important secrets. However, after that, Carnot rarely expressed his opinions on political issues.

Carnot's decision to stop speaking on political matters had another consequence: his status within the "Committee of Public Safety" seemed to rise. Even all the members of the committee, including Robespierre, were somewhat afraid of him. Because now, although Carnot no longer spoke on political issues, whenever he opened his mouth, it was always about only one thing—money!

"I must remind you all, the 'Equality Grenade' is certainly a good idea, but if we let the current situation continue, we'll soon be out of Grenade! You must come up with a solution for me as soon as possible!" Carnot glared at Robespierre, blowing his hair out like a hairdryer.

"What's wrong, General Carnot?" Robespierre leaned back slightly to keep himself away from Carnot's mouth.

"What's wrong? This is unbelievable!" Carnot slammed a document on the table. "Look at this! Look at this! How low are our stocks of saltpeter and caustic soda?! I brought this up with you the month before last, and you said you'd find a way to solve it; I reminded you again last month, and you still haven't solved it. This is unbelievable! At this rate, our army will soon be forced to fight with cold weapons! I'm telling you, this problem can't be delayed any longer. Any delay is treason!"

Saltpeter and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide) are both important raw materials for explosives production, and France does not produce much of these domestically. However, these materials are indispensable to France. Saltpeter mainly comes from France's traditional ally, Turkey, which has numerous saltpeter mines within its controlled territories.

As for caustic alkalis, the France used to mainly import sodium hydroxide from Spain, while their potassium hydroxide mainly came from the Baltic Sea region. Now, there are problems with the import of these supplies.

Because France lost half of its fleet in Toulon, France lost control of the Mediterranean Sea. The Britain, Spain, and even Italy navies cut off France's communication with its traditional ally Turkey, preventing the import of saltpeter. The revolutionary government's only option was smuggling. However, the amount smuggled was limited and could not support the enormous expenditures of the war.

As for caustic soda, it can only be obtained through smuggling. Not only is the quantity of these smuggled goods limited, but the prices are also ridiculously high. Moreover, smugglers do not accept Assignat and only want cash. This further increases the economic pressure.

"Carnot, don't worry, we've already taken some measures," Robespierre said. "We've ordered the stockpiling of saltpeter throughout France, but as you know, the production capacity is limited, and it will take some time to produce more. But this is the only thing I can do right now."

"Okay, then tell me, how many nitrate storage facilities have you built so far? What is the expected output?" Carnot said. "This is related to our next step in building up the army. If the output can be guaranteed, we can produce more 'Little Melon.' Otherwise, we will have to reduce or even suspend the production of these things."

"We can only do our best. But Carnot, you know, we can't create something from nothing," Robespierre replied.

Carnot fell silent. He knew that Robespierre and his men had indeed done their best in this matter. They had even sent special teams to every village to collect saltpeter from the base of the farmers' walls and the barns, as well as ash from the kitchens (which could be used to purify potassium salts). They had also allowed the farmers to use these materials to offset part of their taxes.

"Fundamentally, we still have to rebuild the navy," Carnot concluded.

"Yes, we need to rebuild our navy, but it won't be easy. We lack much more than what's needed to rebuild it."

"I suggest we establish a 'Material Management Committee' to manage these essential supplies in a unified manner, and resume trade with neutral countries," Barère said. "We should suspend navigation laws and trade with those neutral countries using hard currency, foreign exchange, and other goods."

"Hard currency? Where would we get so much hard currency?" Robespierre said.

"Confiscate the property of those traitors, including not only money, but also all sorts of luxury goods, works of art, and other things they might need, such as wine or other items. Their cargo ships won't return empty-handed anyway; we can barter," Barère replied.

"The Paris Commune might be unhappy," Cambon said.

This is natural, because doing so would mean that a lot of goods would be used for barter trade, and France at that time didn't have much to offer for foreign trade. Although Barère used wine as an example, everyone knows that wine alone is far from enough; the truly meaningful thing is the "other thing" he didn't mention later.

As for what this unspoken "other thing" is, everyone actually knows the answer in their hearts: the only other thing that can be traded in large quantities is grain.

This year's harvest was bountiful. The Sans-culottes, represented by the Paris Commune, thought food prices would fall. But exporting large quantities of this grain would practically create a famine. The supporters of the Paris Commune were the poorest of the poor, and they would certainly be among those most severely affected by this policy. Therefore, it was foreseeable that the Paris Commune would be extremely dissatisfied.

"Yes, they will be unhappy. If we do that, it will lead to people going hungry. Some might even starve to death. Paris might be okay, since we will take better care of Paris, but in the rural provinces, there might really be tragedies of people who grow crops starving to death in a bumper harvest year. But if we don't do that, we will completely collapse economically. Economic collapse will lead to military and political collapse. At that point, we will have even more deaths, and the cost of the flight will be even greater," Barère said.

"I feel this is something we must do, even at risk," Robespierre said. "As for the Paris Commune's reaction, I think I'll speak with Hébert; they should be able to understand the Republic's difficulties."

Although Robespierre said so, no one believed he could truly convince Hébert and the others. Carnot, in particular, immediately recalled the words Joseph had spoken to him during his "report."

"The scarcity of resources, especially strategic resources, will be the most difficult problem to solve. If this problem is not solved, all the victories the Republic has achieved so far will be meaningless. But the only way to solve these problems is through trade with neutral countries. The Republic lacks hard currency, so to a large extent, it can only rely on barter trade. And the only goods the Republic can provide in large quantities are grain. This will inevitably harm the interests of farmers and the Sans-culottes at the bottom of the urban population. They certainly will not agree to this."

Therefore, the Committee of Public Safety was bound to clash with the Paris Commune. Hébert was a man of considerable ambition; he probably already felt that he had not received the position he deserved.

Haha, the establishment of the republic relied on the revolution of the Paris Commune; the beheading of the king was also due to the power of the Paris Commune; and finally, the Mountain defeated the Marsh, also thanks to the support of the Paris Commune.

However, after the victory, the Paris Commune gained nothing. The Committee of Public Safety was the most powerful institution in the entire country, the core of state power. Yet, not a single representative of the Paris Commune was even allowed into this institution. Do you think Hébert would be content with that?

He certainly wouldn't accept this; he would definitely try to use this opportunity, exploiting the discontent of the Sans-culottes, to launch another revolution, send all those currently in the Committee of Public Safety to the guillotine, and then establish the Paris Commune's direct rule over France. However, Lazar, I think the situation is different now than when the Brissotins controlled the National Assembly. Back then, the National Assembly wasn't united, and no effective measures could be taken. But the Committee of Public Safety now is not so easy to deal with. Just wait and see; there will be a good show..."