First Consul
A few days later, after thorough discussions, the National Assembly was to vote on Napoleon's political reform plan. The people of Paris spontaneously mobilized (absolutely spontaneously), gathering in the square near the National Assembly building to sing and dance in celebration of the impending passage of the new laws. People sang various revolutionary songs, waving rifles, spears, and models of the guillotine (note that this was not allowed to appear in news reports!), expressing their support for the National Assembly and their joy at the victory.
Many soldiers also joined in the grand celebration, bringing cannons as ceremonial salutations. The square in front of the Capitol Building became a sea of joy.
In this joyful atmosphere, the National Assembly began to deliberate on Napoleon's plan. All the members of parliament cast their votes in favor without hesitation, accompanied by the song "It will be alright, it will be alright, the counter-revolutionaries are all hung on lampposts." Thus, Napoleon's plan was successfully passed.
According to this plan, the France government will undergo a comprehensive overhaul, and the highest executive body of France will be called the Consulate. The Consulate will consist of three consuls, who will be responsible for administrative affairs. The Second Consul will be responsible for domestic affairs, while the Consuls will be responsible for military and foreign affairs, and they will report directly to the First Consul. The First Consul will oversee all administrative affairs and will also serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army.
The first head of state is directly elected for a five-year term and is not accountable to parliament as head of state. The second and third heads of state are nominated by the first head of state and approved by parliament.
Under the Consulate, several departments were established, namely the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Police, and the Ministry of Truth. The ministers of these departments were appointed by the First Consul General and were directly responsible to him.
As for the National Assembly, it was also reformed and divided into four parts: the Council of State, the Tribunate, the Legislative Assembly, and the Senate. The Council of State was responsible for proposing bills, the Legislative Assembly for the Tribunate of the People was responsible for discussing the bills proposed by the Council of State and proposing amendments, the Legislative Yuan voted on the legal provisions amended by the Tribunate, and after the vote was passed, it was submitted to the Senate for review and approval, and then submitted to the first ruling party for implementation.
Of the four houses, only the Council of State has the power to introduce bills, but these bills still need approval from the other three departments before they can become law. This effectively reduces the power of Congress significantly.
On the other hand, according to the new plan, some members of these four parliaments would be recommended by the First Consul, while others would be indirectly elected through a relatively complex process. This made the elections themselves easily influenced by the First Consul. After this plan was adopted, the National Assembly truly became the Senate after Augustus.
After the passage of this bill, as the Britain writer Dickens later put it, "the National Assembly approved its own death sentence." From then on, the National Assembly was no longer the most important player on the France political stage.
After the bill was passed, and following swift preparations, the first general election was held in France a month later.
This was France's first nationwide election, and as the sole candidate, Napoleon received almost all the votes, except for some invalid votes due to technical reasons.
It was precisely because of this election result that Napoleon was able to arrogantly declare in the Senate, when asked why he had suspended the implementation of a certain law, "I was elected by all the people of France, one person, one vote! My legitimacy far surpasses that of any parliament; therefore, the legitimacy of my orders far surpasses that of any so-called law enacted by parliament! Suspending the implementation of laws that do not conform to the will of the France people is an indisputable power granted to me by the France people!"
Although Napoleon has not received the official title "Dictator," he has effectively acquired the right to it. The only person who can truly frustrate Napoleon now is Joseph.
"What the hell! Napoleon, you idiot! You can't even understand such a simple design after looking at it for so long, and you still have the audacity to sneak into the Academy of Sciences! Let me tell you! Even if the Academy of Sciences only increases the number of academicians by ten, or even a hundred more, it still won't be your turn! Don't think that just because you found a bunch of weaklings like Laplace and got them to write you a ton of recommendation letters, you can use your power to tarnish the sanctity of being a member of the French Academy of Sciences. I say no, and that's final! As long as I am the president of the French Academy of Sciences, your blatant attempt to use secular power to sneak in will absolutely not be permitted! Unless..." Joseph cursed, spittle flying.
"Unless what?" Napoleon asked.
"Unless you can prove any of the questions that come with this book!" Joseph casually pulled a book from the shelf and threw it in front of Napoleon.
The book was Joseph's Foundations of Mathematics. Although the book was titled "Foundations," the content was anything but fundamental; it contained valuable material that would be hated by countless science and engineering students even centuries later. Joseph brazenly and shamelessly plagiarized the important creations of many great mathematicians from the original timeline, successfully replacing them and becoming the most hated figure among students of this era.
In the final part of the book, Joseph throws a whole host of mathematical problems into the book, including Fermat's Last Theorem (now known as Fermat's Last Theorem), Goldbach's Conjecture, and the Four Color Theorem, among many others.
"This is not fair!" Napoleon protested. "Even Laplace couldn't solve these problems!"
"Alright, then prove some scientific law that we didn't know before, or I'll lower the difficulty a bit and pose a question that's about the same difficulty as the question at the end of this book!" Joseph said.
"Hmph! You just wait!" Napoleon angrily put away the application form bearing the signatures of Lavoisier, Laplace, and others, and stormed out of Joseph's laboratory. As he walked, he thought to himself, "I must get Laplace to finish a high-quality paper for me as soon as possible! It must be groundbreaking, highly thought-provoking, extremely important, and have widespread applicability!"
Of course, this was just a minor matter between the brothers. Both brothers were very busy at the time. Napoleon was busy building the framework of his government, and Carnot, who had always had a good relationship with them, became the Third Consul and also served as Minister of War; while Barras, who had joined the "Military-Industrial Complex" at a crucial moment, became the Second Consul and obtained the position of Minister of the Interior.
Lucien became the first minister of the newly established Ministry of Truth, and also served as the chairman of the Tribunate. Fouché continued as Minister of Police, while the other ministerial positions were given to individuals who shared interests with the Bonaparte Family. In short, Napoleon's government was essentially established.
It is said that at a gathering after the government was officially established, the young first chief executive raised his glass to everyone and said the following: "Gentlemen, many of us have witnessed firsthand how the Directory lost the hearts of the people and how it was abandoned by them. The main reasons for their downfall are only two: incompetence and corruption."
Gentlemen, in fact, the people in the Directory were not truly fools. Individually, none of them were fools; in fact, they were all highly capable individuals. So why did the Directory give the impression of incompetence? I believe the reason is simple: their intelligence was wasted on internal strife. And the reason for their constant infighting was their lack of a unified interest.
Gentlemen, on this point, we are quite different from them. We all share a common interest in making this government function efficiently, which is beneficial to each and every one of us. There can be competition among us, but I hope that this competition must be limited and not turn into internal strife.
Regarding the second point, namely the issue of corruption, I don't want to preach any grand, deceptive theories. I'll just say this: many of us own businesses. Making money from these businesses is far more reliable, and often far more lucrative, than embezzling or accepting bribes. Don't let small gains lead to big losses. As for those who haven't yet secured sufficient status and benefits within our "Military-Industrial Consortium," I can tell you that we have established a special position of "corporate advisor" within the Military-Industrial Consortium. If you perform well in the government, when you leave, what you can obtain in this position will be far more than what you could achieve through corruption..."
As for Joseph, now that the "Zeus Plan" has been largely successful, he is focusing Joseph main efforts on the "Hephaestus Project."
Hephaestus, the Greece god of fire and blacksmiths, was the inspiration for the project, which primarily involved iron and steel smelting. In this era, crucible steelmaking already existed. Using graphite crucibles, humans achieved for the first time a furnace temperature exceeding the melting point of pure iron, thus obtaining molten steel. This was the most advanced steelmaking technology of the time. However, this technology was still relatively expensive, and its production was very limited. This method clearly did not meet Joseph's needs.
In the original timeline, it wasn't until decades later, when the Britain Henri Bessemer invented the Bessemer Converter Steelmaking, that large-scale, low-cost steel production was first realized. However, Joseph wasn't a metallurgical professional and only had a basic understanding of steelmaking. He only knew that the fundamental principle of both converter and open-hearth steelmaking was to blow oxygen into molten pig iron to burn off excess carbon and obtain steel. But that was all he knew; once it came to the technical details, he immediately became completely ignorant.
Even these general directions, lacking technical details, are of immense value because they point in the right direction. As long as the direction is correct and the technology path doesn't go astray, the technical details can be gradually developed through intensive experimentation. Moreover, Joseph has the greatest chemist of this era with him.