Rebellion and Coup
Soon the Duke of Brunswick received the latest intelligence: right across from them, the defensive devil who had organized an impenetrable defense, the nightmare who also bore the name Bonaparte — Joseph Bonaparte —had been hit by a bullet in the previous battle, and his fate was unknown.
"We've hit another French Army commander?" The Duke of Brunswick thought the news was utterly absurd. However, there were countless absurdities on the battlefield; for example, King Theodoric himself died in the decisive Battle of Chalons.
Furthermore, neither the senior officers of the British nor the Prussian armies wanted to return with a major defeat—while the saying "one general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand" might not be ideal, it was still better than "one general's failure is built on the bones of ten thousand," since the bones had already been built up, weren't they?
However, rushing headlong into something without distinguishing between truth and falsehood, only to be brutally humiliated by various means, would be unacceptable even to one's self-esteem. Therefore, everyone decided to stop and observe first. Of course, they also needed to strengthen their own defenses at the same time.
Meanwhile, Paris was in chaos. Joseph realized he had to keep it a secret from Paris as well. Paris was like a sieve; any news that got to Paris would immediately spread to businessmen, and bankers would know military secrets faster and in greater detail than the generals.
Businessmen often have the habit of juggling multiple interests; if a secret falls into their hands, it would be strange if Royalist Party or even spies from other countries didn't know. So if Joseph told the Directory in Paris that he was only faking his injury, it wouldn't even take an afternoon for everyone in Paris with a little money and status to know he was faking it. What would be the point then?
However, keeping it from the Directory also brought another problem: the Directory officials took it seriously. As a result, this military secret, which should have been highly confidential, quickly became known throughout Paris, and some newspapers even published it.
Of course, the Science Truth Daily immediately stepped forward to refute the rumors, stating. "At this time of national crisis, everyone must remain calm and refrain from believing or spreading rumors!"
However, the newspaper * Science Truth Daily * did not provide any concrete evidence to prove that the rumors circulating in the market were false. On the contrary, people found another news item in * Science Truth Daily * that seemed to confirm the rumor: at the Cateau front, General Moreau had repelled the British Army attack and would soon proceed to Verdun to support General Joseph Bonaparte's operations.
To everyone else, this military troop movement practically confirmed the veracity of the legend of Joseph's injury. Clearly, if Joseph hadn't been injured, why would they urgently transfer Moreau there at this time?
In addition, other actions seem to confirm this. Some newspapers reported that Mr. Lavoisier, who had recently returned to Paris and resumed his part-time teaching position at the University of Paris, suddenly left Paris for Toulon due to work requirements. Besides Mr. Lavoisier, it is said that many researchers working at the "Military-Industrial Complex" institutes also urgently went to Toulon "due to work needs." The Science Truth Daily * did not deny this, only stating, "This is a normal transfer that was planned long ago."
Of course, that alone would have been bad enough. What was even more alarming was that, once again, various cases of embezzlement and absconding occurred within the Directory. For instance, one morning, when the employees of the Ministry of Finance went to work, they discovered that the Minister's Secretary Garcia, was nowhere to be found. Soon after, it was discovered that Garcia had used forged signatures to abscond with a large sum of government funds under the guise of collecting government salaries, and had run away with his sister-in-law.
This is not an isolated case; there are countless similar incidents.
Amid this chaos, the Royalist Party became active again, and some, especially the National Guard from some propertied communities, began to collude with them once more—after all, the Red Army, and even the gendarmerie, had been taken to Verdun by Joseph. In some places, the Royalist Party white flag was even openly displayed once more.
This situation, in turn, exacerbated the chaos in Paris. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Police, which had always been effective in suppressing Royalist Party activities, appeared unusually lax, and rumors circulated that Minister of Police Fouché was also associating with Royalist Party. It seemed that Paris was about to undergo another upheaval.
Napoleon naturally received the message from Joseph, and by then his army had entered a state of forced march, rushing toward Paris at top speed.
On the night of March 16, 1798, a rebellion broke out in Paris. By noon the following day, opportunists who had sided with the Royalist Party had quickly occupied most of Paris and began preparing to besiege the National Assembly again. But at that moment, news suddenly arrived that General Napoleon had arrived in Paris with a large army.
Then a very interesting scene unfolded: although Napoleon's army did not appear, the National Guard surrounding the Reichstag building suddenly disappeared in large numbers. When General Augereau's cavalry appeared in the square outside the Reichstag building, the entire square and the surrounding area were so empty that they could be used to film "I Am Legend".
In short, at the most critical moment, our General Napoleon Bonaparte once again saved the Republic and the revolution. Even more remarkably, in this suppression of the rebellion, General Napoleon Bonaparte and his troops displayed astonishing restraint, managing to quell the uprising peacefully without killing a single rebel. This fully demonstrated the might and civility of the Italian Legion.
After successfully suppressing another Royalist Party rebellion and bringing back all the remaining members of parliament (some of whom had fled before the uprising began and whose whereabouts were now unknown and could not be found), General Napoleon personally addressed Parliament for the sake of the country's future.
On his way to give the speech, Lucien said to Napoleon, "Napoleon, are you ready for this speech? Let me tell you, for a speech, you need to first..."
"Come on, Lucien." Napoleon waved his hand as if shooing away a buzzing fly. Fortunately, he didn't intend to tie Lucien's intestines around his neck. "I've given countless speeches in the army. What's a speech? Do you need to teach me? Just wait and see!"
Then Napoleon strode confidently into the parliament hall and delivered a speech to the members of parliament.
In his speech, Napoleon stated that the current France government was utterly incompetent, weak, corrupt, inefficient, and filled with all sorts of swindlers, scoundrels, and traitors. It had managed to ruin such a promising situation, completely squandering the efforts of the revolutionary soldiers. If things continued this way, the France Revolution would inevitably end. To save the revolution and France, he suggested an immediate reorganization of the government, establishing a strong, clean, and efficient new government to defeat all the enemies of the revolution.
Napoleon had assumed the members of parliament would cheer for him like his soldiers, but instead they questioned him.
"General Bonaparte, are you planning to establish a military government?"
"General Bonaparte, are you going to become a poisoner?"
"We overthrew one tyrant, now do you want to become a second one?"
Later, shouts of "Down with the poisonous vegetable tyrant! Long live democracy!" became a common refrain.
The actions of the councilors were completely unexpected by Napoleon had not prepared any contingency plans. For a moment, he turned pale and was at a loss for what to do.
Perhaps encouraged by Napoleon's actions, the members of parliament left their seats and surrounded Napoleon. Napoleon was already looking around, trying to find a place to escape.
"Damn it, I came in without a gun!" Napoleon thought.
At this critical moment, a group of soldiers and policemen, led by Lucien and Fouché, rushed in.
"Bang! Bang!" Lucien fired two shots into the air.
The menacing councilors immediately returned to their seats, like elementary school students seeing their homeroom teacher.
Lucien gave Napoleon a wink, signaling him to leave immediately. Then he stepped onto the podium, gave the crowd a fierce look, and said, "I know some of you have betrayed the revolution, betrayed France, and become Bourbon's lackeys! Do you still want to murder the heroes of the revolution, the saviors of the republic? Don't be fooled by these guys, be vigilant, be vigilant!"
The councilors stirred slightly, but after seeing the heavily armed soldiers, they fell silent.
"Now I propose that the immunity of those members of parliament who collude with Royalist Party be revoked. Let's vote by raising our hands," Lucien said, raising his hand first.
Then, one by one, the members of parliament raised their hands.
"Very good, the vote is passed!" Lucien said.
Lucien then gave his seat to Fouché, Fouché took out a small notebook and began reading names. Each time he called out a name, someone was dragged away by the police. Fouché only called out five names. However, these five were the same men who had led the attack on Napoleon earlier.
After all these people had been dragged out one by one, Lucien asked again, "Now, may we invite Mr. Napoleon Bonaparte to return and continue his speech?"
So Napoleon was invited back, and his speech became very brief. "Everyone has heard my proposal. Now let's vote by raising our hands. Who agrees and who disagrees?"
Therefore, all the members of the Council of Council of Five Hundred, in the spirit of being responsible to the revolution, to France, and to history, unanimously cast their votes in favor.