To Make Nobel Have No Way To Go

After leaving the Academy of Sciences, Lavoisier did not return home. Instead, he boarded a carriage, exited Paris, and headed toward an estate belonging to the Duke of Orleans. A few days prior, he had borrowed a plot of land from the Duke to conduct new scientific experiments.

Perhaps it was because for a long time, His Majesty the King had been unable to produce a son (Queen Marie Antoinette gave birth to their first son only after eleven years of marriage), leading many high-ranking nobles with close blood ties to the King to entertain the thought that the King might die without an heir and the crown might fall to them. As a close relative of the King, the Orleans Family was not immune to such notions. Years ago, after the King underwent a surgery, the Queen finally became pregnant and subsequently gave birth to two princes. However, once ambition takes root, it is difficult to extinguish naturally. Much like Macbeth, who developed an ambition for the Scottish crown due to a witch's prophecy, the Orleans Family and other high-ranking nobles did not see their ambitions vanish with the birth of the princes. Although the old King had clearly stated that his crown would pass to his own son rather than Macbeth, Macbeth's ambition for the throne did not fade; instead, it grew more fervent, eventually driving him to regicide. Coupled with the King's weak character and the Queen's political naivety—despite her strong-willed nature, she lacked formal political education—the high-ranking nobles felt all the more that "he could be replaced."

To "replace" him, these high-ranking nobles, including the Orleans Family, spent years working both overtly and covertly to undermine the King, ensuring his initiatives failed. Simultaneously, they intentionally manufactured public opinion to disparage the royal family. Naturally, they did not point their fingers directly at the King—that would be too blunt and would easily expose their own ambitions. Thus, they unanimously targeted Queen Marie Antoinette. The Queen was strong-willed but lacked political wisdom; furthermore, being vain and having no concept of money, she easily fell into their traps. They flattered her, inducing her to host endless balls and swindling millions of francs in "gifts" from her hands annually, while simultaneously slandering her in society as "extravagant" and even bestowing upon her the nickname "Madame Deficit." The recently exposed, bizarre Affair of the Diamond Necklace had further ruined the Queen's reputation. (A female con artist, having directed such a grand drama that ensnared the Queen, was able to walk out of a heavily guarded prison—heaven only knows if there was something fishy about that.)

Of course, the nobles maintained a sense of proportion. Their propaganda consistently insisted on one point: the King was a good man, but he was too soft-hearted and too afraid of his wife, and thus... in short, "The current sovereign is most holy and wise, but he is being led by the nose by a woman."

On the surface, this propaganda appeared to be exculpating the King, but in terms of effect, it was actually more damaging than directly attacking him for being greedy or cruel. A greedy and cruel king might be hated, but he would also be feared; however, a kind and weak "good old man" controlled by his wife would only be met with contempt.

Machiavelli argued that the most vulnerable monarchs, those easiest to overthrow, were not the tyrants whom everyone hated, but the monarchs whom their subjects universally despised. Through such propaganda, the high-ranking nobles channeled the people's hatred toward the Queen, while reserving the most dangerous sentiment—contempt—for the King.

If Louis XVI had been a powerful ruler—no, he didn't even need to be a powerful ruler, just a tyrant—he could have used iron-fisted measures to ruthlessly quell these discussions, or at least turned the people's contempt into hatred and fear. Relatively speaking, the crown of a feared tyrant sits more securely than that of a despised king.

Yet, Louis XVI was a man of weak character, hesitant and indecisive, unable to summon the resolve to have the heads of those high-ranking nobles roll. His concessions only made the high-ranking nobles, including the Orleans Family, feel all the more that the crown of France naturally belonged on their own heads.

In The Prince, Machiavelli also proposed that a ruler should use small favors to make the people feel both grateful and expectant. Therefore, while setting traps for the King, the high-ranking nobles vied to dress themselves up as "friends of the people," "enlightened gentlemen," and "pioneers of democracy." In the words of a later great mentor: "In order to rally the people, the aristocracy waved the proletarian alms-bag as a banner." Of course, the ultimate result of the nobles doing this was that "as often as the people followed them, they saw their hindquarters adorned with the old feudal coats of arms and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter." But for the moment, at least, these tactics were enough to make the people follow them.

To pose as "friends of the people," "enlightened gentlemen," and "pioneers of democracy," the high-ranking nobles all pretended to love science, the motherland, and the people. Supporting academic research and academic freedom became something these high-ranking nobles competed to flaunt. Supporting the research of Lavoisier, who had become the pride of France, was naturally something a "friend of the people," an "enlightened gentleman," and a "pioneer of democracy" ought to do.

His Grace the Duke of Orleans happened to be free, so he waited there for Lavoisier. He was also quite interested in Lavoisier's experiments and began to inquire about their content.

"Master, you know, I mean no offense, I am merely curious. Could you tell me what kind of experiment you are conducting here?" the Duke of Orleans had asked when he lent the site.

"Oh, Joseph wrote me a letter. In it, he mentioned that he used concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid in a special way to carefully treat glycerin, obtaining a liquid gunpowder of immense power. Well, perhaps as Joseph said, it shouldn't be called gunpowder, but rather an explosive. This liquid explosive still has many issues, but Joseph is currently busy with mathematical matters and is not particularly proficient in such things, so he told me about it after only conducting preliminary experiments. I tried it, and it is indeed as he said; this thing is incredibly powerful. Its power is at least several dozen to over a hundred times that of brown gunpowder."

"That powerful?" The Duke of Orleans was startled.

"Isn't it?" Lavoisier said. "You know, Joseph described the power of that thing as being like the thunderbolts of Zeus. He suggested that when I experimented myself, I should not use more than one gram at a time. So I took a gram and tried it, and it really exploded. And the power far exceeded my expectations. Well, Duke, this thing is quite dangerous. To conduct comprehensive tests, there is certainly no way to do it within the city of Paris."

"Such a thing should probably be researched by the military, shouldn't it?" the Duke of Orleans said.

"Ah, Your Grace, you may not know this, but although this thing is powerful, it is truly not suitable for military use, at least not for now," Lavoisier said, looking at the Duke of Orleans. "You may not know that this thing is very unstable. A little vibration, or light, or even slight heating, and this thing will explode. Your Grace, imagine if it were used for military purposes; during transport, as long as the carriage wheel jolted in a small pothole, the entire carriage of explosives would go off with a bang, with a power equivalent to over a hundred carriages of gunpowder exploding at once."

"My God!" the Duke of Orleans exclaimed. "If it's that dangerous, then how can this thing be used?"

"Military use is out of the question," Lavoisier said. "This thing is difficult to transport; often it needs to be prepared at the site of use. How could one possibly prepare it on the battlefield for military use? Civil use, however, such as mining, is different. We can prepare this thing directly at the mining site and use it immediately, which would be relatively safer. Duke, this thing is actually very useful. For example, it could be of great use in mining, digging canals, and other engineering projects; in many cases, it might even bring about revolutionary changes. Moreover, the cost of the raw materials is not high. If the preparation issues can be solved, this thing should be able to make a lot of money. Is Your Grace interested?"

"If the preparation issues can be solved? My Master, does that mean there are still problems with the production of this thing?" the Duke of Orleans asked.

"Yes, currently it can only be produced in a laboratory, and the quantity produced at one time is quite limited. If it is to be applied on a large scale, the method of preparation must certainly change. Furthermore, even during preparation, this thing is quite dangerous. Large-scale production involves a different environment than a laboratory, so it still requires careful research," Lavoisier explained.

"Then, Mr. Lavoisier, may I participate in this research?" the Duke of Orleans asked.

"Of course, I would be very happy to have you participate. In the future, you can name this product, and besides, your name can also be signed on the author list of future papers," Lavoisier said.

The Duke laughed: "Ah, that won't do. People would say I am shamelessly pursuing honors that do not belong to me. So, my name must absolutely not appear on the author list of the paper. However, if you could mention in the paper that I provided a small, insignificant amount of help to this research, I would be very pleased."

"That is no problem," Lavoisier laughed. "Additionally, this research carries a certain degree of danger. So, while Your Grace may participate, please maintain a safe distance when performing some of the more hazardous operations."