Special Tactical Training Camp (3)

The next day, Lucien and Javert spent another whole day running around Paris. However, this day was far less successful than the first; they couldn't find many people.

"Mr. Bonaparte, don't worry. The remaining guys are a bit harder to find anyway, but we'll have them all in a couple more days at most," Javert said to a slightly disappointed Lucien after yet another fruitless search.

"I know that. When I first received this list, I planned to gather all these people in about a month. Yesterday, with your help, things went too smoothly, which raised my expectations. Actually, today's efficiency is already much higher than I originally anticipated." Lucien paused, then continued, "A few years ago, my brother brought me from Corsica to Paris to study. I've been in Paris for several years now, and although I can't compare to the long-time Paris, I always thought I knew Paris well. But after walking through the alleys of Paris with you these past two days, I've realized that I actually know nothing about Paris."

"Even those who have lived in Paris their whole lives, who would dare say they truly understand Paris?" Javert remarked.

"Mr. Javert," Lucien added, "We will be preparing to leave Paris the day after tomorrow."

"So fast?" Javert was taken aback.

"Yes, the sooner we get back, the sooner we can start working," Lucien said. "As for the rest of the people, we can leave one or two in Paris, firstly to continue recruiting, and secondly to have someone familiarize themselves with the situation in Paris."

"Mr. Lucien, our people in Paris aren't getting any high-level information," Javert said.

This is normal. Javert's group used to be just low-level police officers; the higher-ups were too far removed from them.

"You don't need to worry about things at the top; we have other channels for that. We don't lack that; what we lack is understanding of the lower levels," Lucien said. "What's wrong, a little reluctant to leave Paris?"

Javert sighed, "It is a little hard to leave. After all, I've spent half my life here. I've left my footprints on almost every street and alley in Paris."

"My friend, we are only leaving temporarily," Lucien said. "We will definitely return to Paris!"

Two days later, after visiting Fouché again, Lucien left Paris with about twenty men, who later became the first instructors of the Special Tactical Training Camp.

Fouché had actually noticed Lucien's actions long ago. To be honest, Lucien's series of moves all seemed to be a challenge to him, so Fouché was quite cold towards Lucien's visit. However, he also knew that not putting all his eggs in one basket was a necessary choice for a mature organization. Moreover, although Lucien was Joseph's direct subordinate, Fouché was still confident that he could overpower him with his own abilities.

During these days, Napoleon had already found a manor near Toulon to use as a training base for the "Special Tactical Training Camp".

The estate is mainly composed of hills and woodlands, and was originally a hunting ground for a local nobleman. After the Toulon Rebellion, the nobleman and his son fled with the Britain, and their belongings were confiscated. The arable land was naturally cultivated by the farmers. However, hunting estates like this one, being remote and yielding little beyond various birds and animals, were abandoned. Now, it's being used by the "Special Tactical Training Camp."

The location is secured, but the trainees are not yet available. Right now, the Poland are fighting a regular war against the Russia army near Warsaw with all their might. Of course, their situation is far from optimistic. Their military commander, Kosciuszko, was seriously wounded in a previous battle. Although they had achieved considerable victories initially through a sudden uprising and smuggling various trinkets.

Moreover, in order to negotiate with Russia and to ensure that Russia would not monopolize all of Poland's remaining interests before they could transfer enough troops there, Prussia and Austria not only did not intensify their attacks on the Poland insurgents, but even intentionally or unintentionally relaxed the blockade on the areas controlled by the insurgents. As a result, weapons sold by Joseph to Poland are now almost never checked in the Prussia -controlled areas.

However, the Russia, Austria, and Prussia had now largely reached an agreement on how to divide the spoils. Therefore, the Poland's good days were numbered. With the three parties reaching an agreement, the smuggling route within Prussia was almost immediately cut off, and the Poland began to face attacks from three directions. Although they were still resisting, their defeat was inevitable. Wybicki had already begun contacting Joseph, inquiring about training underground resistance fighters.

So even though there were no students yet, the people in the training camp were still very busy. They had to get all the courses ready before the Poland arrived.

According to Lucien's vision, these courses should mainly include the following:

First, there's reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance. Without training in these areas, underground work would be extremely difficult. Joseph Bonaparte, despite his busy schedule, specifically took the time to offer numerous suggestions on the curriculum, many of which were rejected as impractical. However, some of his suggestions elicited exclamations from the instructors such as, "There's such a thing?" and "It actually seems feasible!" Javert even remarked, "If Mr. Joseph Bonaparte had become a policeman, he would have been a legend in the police force." Of course, some say that Javert actually meant, "If Mr. Joseph Bonaparte had become a criminal, we would never have been able to live happily."

Joseph, however, didn't think it was anything special. After all, he was someone who had watched hundreds of episodes of elementary school detective shows.

Secondly, there's the use of various weapons and related combat techniques. Underground combat techniques are completely different from ordinary combat; they have unique requirements: stealth and speed. This naturally necessitates many unique skills. To verify the feasibility of certain legendary techniques circulating in the martial arts world, some even went so far as to suggest bringing in death row inmates for testing.

Such a mad idea could not possibly be implemented in Joseph's research institution, which was established to promote revolution throughout Europe and the liberation of all the people of Europe. Therefore, the proposal was immediately rejected by the righteous Joseph. However, Joseph had at least studied the doctrine of "taking what is useful" and understood the principle that "if one sees opium, one should not throw it in the latrine in public to show its revolutionary nature, but rather send it to the pharmacy for medicinal use."

Therefore, Joseph first consulted experienced military doctors to scientifically assess the potential effects of these legendary techniques. Some obviously unscientific methods were rejected, while others requiring experimental verification were reserved in the appendix of the textbook. After explaining the implementation principles of these techniques in detail, the appendix, in larger print, added that the effectiveness of these techniques had not been verified, and requested feedback from trainees who gained practical experience.

The compilation of these tutorials took another two months. By the time this work was completed, Joseph had already produced prototypes of various targeted weapons. The instructors had a particular appreciation for these insidious weapons. Although these weapons were still very crude by today's standards, in the eyes of these instructors, they were already very good, even revolutionary weapons.

"Those Poland, with these things, will definitely give their enemies a lot of headaches," Javert commented.

It was during this time that perhaps Lucien's actions provoked Fouché, Fouché sent him a document requesting Joseph to allocate him a special fund for bribing certain officials to persuade them to agree to use the invasion of Italy as a way to divert domestic discontent.

Lucien was extremely dissatisfied with this request. He said to Joseph, "We saved Italy by marching into the country! Now, Fouché is asking us to pay them a bribe so they will allow us to save them—what kind of logic is that?"

Joseph smiled and turned to Napoleon: "Napoleon, my brother, what do you think of this?"

Napoleon was lounging in his chair, his feet, clad in tall leather boots, propped up rather unceremoniously on the table—a sign of his relaxation, which he believed was conducive to his thinking.

"Ah, what do I think? I think we should give Fouché whatever amount he needs," Napoleon said. "Fouché isn't a greedy man, and we certainly have a need to bribe him."

"Why should I?" Lucien was clearly unconvinced.

"Lucien," Napoleon lifted his feet off the table and leaned back in his chair, "You fool! Do you really think they need us to invade Italy to save them? Can we save them by invading Italy? They don't think so! First of all, these guys don't believe their rule can last long at all, they don't even believe it themselves, understand, my foolish brother?"

"So what?" Lucien's voice lowered.

"So? Use your limited brainpower and think about it. If you were in their position right now, and you believed that the collapse of the government was inevitable—the ship was sinking—what would you do?"

Lucien remained silent.

"They will try to make as much money as possible, and then transfer it to a safe place, such as hiding it in the New World. If things go wrong, they will immediately run to the New World to become rich." Napoleon said this while turning to look at Joseph with a smile.

"But if we invade Italy, we can prolong the life of their government, giving them more time to make money—isn't that a good thing?" Lucien was still unconvinced.

Napoleon was about to speak again when Joseph interrupted, "Lucien, you make this judgment because you understand our situation and know we can definitely win. But they don't! Considering the supply situation of Napoleon's army during this period, anyone would think that the army's fighting strength has been greatly weakened. Therefore, the chances of winning an offensive are not high. And once a major military defeat occurs, the government may immediately collapse. So, in their view, our actions may not necessarily prolong the government's lifespan, but may even shorten it, thus affecting their plans to make money. Therefore, they think that we can make them make this decision, but we must increase the money."

Napoleon leaned back and put his feet up again. The message was clear. "I have nothing more to add."

"Very well," Joseph said, "Then I suggest we go through Fouché's request, well, who agrees and who disagrees?"

Fouché was incredibly efficient. Less than half a month after the money arrived, Napoleon received orders from the government authorizing him to launch an offensive into Italy, extending the war into enemy-controlled territory.

Upon receiving the order, Napoleon immediately gathered the officers and showed them the order from the government. The officers expressed that the army was poorly equipped and trained, and that the journey to Italy would involve crossing the treacherous Alps, making the operation extremely difficult.

Napoleon stated that soldiers have an obligation to obey orders, and given the difficult circumstances of the revolution, although the government's orders are challenging, we must overcome these difficulties and strive to achieve our goals.

"Furthermore, as everyone knows, the shortage of military pay has been a long-standing issue. Fortunately, we are close to the port and can still obtain some funds through smuggling activities that break through the blockade. This is how we manage to feed our soldiers. However, recently, some technology has gradually leaked to our enemies, and they have started competing with us for business, making our smuggling business less profitable. If this continues, even feeding ourselves might become a problem in the future. Now, the only solution is to fight our way into Italy and defeat our enemies. As for the equipment issue, recently, the arsenal produced a batch of new weapons at the request of the United States. I have already informed Joseph to suspend shipments and divert these weapons to our facilities. Heh... the United States have high standards for weapon quality. The quality of these exported weapons is far superior to what the government has purchased for us, and the price difference is not significant, with many items even being cheaper..."