Arrangements for My Brothers

Adhering to this principle, Joseph thereafter adopted a policy of not only refraining from opposing Marat's amateur scientific absurdities but even offering praise for them.

However, everything is easier said than done. Deciding to adopt the strategy of "agree with him, encourage him, and groom him into a massive idiot" was not difficult, but insincerely agreeing with a truly idiotic viewpoint was genuinely agonizing. Joseph even recalled an anecdote he had seen in his past life regarding the Republic of China's great poet, Zhang Zongchang.

It is said that Commander Zhang compiled a collection of the poems he had written (masterpieces such as "Daming Lake, the lake is big, there are lotus flowers on Daming Lake, there are toads on the lotus flowers, one poke and they hop.") and invited an old scholar to critique them. The old scholar, unaware at first that the work belonged to Zhang Zongchang, read it and spoke the truth: "It's utter nonsense!"

Upon hearing this, Commander Zhang flew into a rage: "You dare call the poems I wrote 'utter nonsense'? I think you old codger have grown tired of living! Guards, drag this old thing out and shoot him!"

The old scholar, realizing he had blundered, knelt down and begged, "Commander, Commander, my eyes are old and dim, I didn't see clearly just now... please let me look again..."

Zhang Zongchang had the guards release the old man, patted the Mauser pistol at his waist, and said, "Old thing, look carefully this time!"

The old scholar read the Commander's poetry collection twice more with great seriousness, then sighed, put the book down, stood up, and said to Zhang Zongchang, "Commander, you had better just have someone drag me out and shoot me."

Now, Joseph felt very much like saying to Marat, who was currently spraying spit everywhere as he spoke, "You had better just drag me to the guillotine."

Fortunately, Danton also seemed to hold Marat's views in low regard, so he stepped forward to argue with him. Marat then let Joseph off the hook, focusing all his energy on debating Danton.

Armand then took Joseph to meet a few others, telling them that Joseph was a rising star in science and possessed a keen eye for art; for instance, his unfinished Spartacus contained quite a bit of content derived from Joseph's suggestions.

And so, everyone began to chat. Generally speaking, when young Frenchmen get together, if the topic isn't women, it is certainly politics. Joseph was then surprised to discover that these future bigwigs of the Jacobins around him (though, of course, the most famous one, Robespierre, was not present) held political views that were not particularly radical at this moment.

Marat advocated for a constitutional monarchy—perhaps related to his time studying in England. Danton was more conservative, believing that an enlightened monarchy was the best system—on this point, his views were basically in line with Voltaire. As for Louis, his political views leaned closer to Marat's, or even slightly toward Oreno's, but it was clear that compared to Danton, he seemed to dislike Marat more. And the host here, Abel, was not very concerned with the specific form of government; he cared more about defending the rights of the underlying Sans-culottes.

Strictly speaking, Oreno was almost the only one who supported a republic, and even he was not particularly firm, as in his view, if a republic could not be achieved, a constitutional monarchy was not entirely unacceptable. In general, if they were suddenly thrown a few years into the future by some force, they would certainly be sent to the guillotine or simply hung from a lamppost by their future selves on charges of being "counter-revolutionaries."

This is normal. It is precisely because they are still moderate—in fact, even the most radical youths today are only radical to this extent—that the Duke of Orleans and his ilk think they can use them, use these little sparks in a pile of dry firewood, to push themselves onto the throne. They do not know that once the fire starts, the situation may not be something they can control. This is truly "those who play with fire will perish by it," Joseph couldn't help but think.

Handling such gatherings was not difficult for Joseph. Having transmigrated from a later era, he had seen countless political theories, political systems, and various political experiments. Dealing with these future bigwigs, who were still politically immature, was no problem at all. Any viewpoint he casually tossed out could make these youths feel deeply inspired, to the point that even Louis, who was usually as calm as a marble statue, exclaimed, "To think there is someone as talented and versatile as Bonaparte in this world."

In fact, at first, Joseph had been quite hesitant about whether to accept Armand's invitation to join these "radical" gatherings, because in the coming tide of the Great Revolution, most of these people would either chop off a pile of heads or have their own heads chopped off, and some would do both. Associating too much with these dangerous elements would likely be dangerous. But considering that the Great Revolution was an unavoidable torrent—and being unavoidable meant that not knowing these dangerous people and having no contact with them was equally dangerous—Joseph finally decided that he must interact with them, but he must maintain a proper distance. He needed to make them have a certain degree of favor toward him so that no one would target him in the future, yet he could not be too close to them to avoid being unnecessarily drawn into political struggles.

Overall, Joseph felt his performance had been quite good. Even Marat's attitude toward him had improved significantly after he offered to let him take the credit for his continued research into color blindness, and even the discovery itself. Although Marat still habitually spoke with barbs, Joseph could feel that Marat held no real malice toward him.

In this era, the status of an outstanding scientist was similar to that of a great Confucian scholar in ancient China. While such people might not necessarily have power, associating with them was an honor for others. Thus, in the end, everyone sincerely invited Joseph to attend their gatherings more often. However, this did not fit Joseph's plans, so he had to apologize to everyone. He expressed that while he would love to attend such gatherings frequently, he was currently researching an important mathematical problem and would likely be too busy to attend their meetings for some time.

"What kind of problem has Mr. Bonaparte encountered?" Marat was quite interested in this.

Joseph spread his hands and said, "To speak of this problem, it sounds simple, but when you study it seriously, you find yourself at a loss. Perhaps I still need a spark of inspiration to flash. Well, a student told me he discovered that all maps seem to require only four colors to distinguish different regions. He just didn't know how to prove this mathematically. I thought the problem was interesting at the time, and it didn't seem too difficult, so I tried to prove it, and well, I still haven't made any progress."

This problem was what later generations called the "Four Color Theorem," one of the four great mathematical conjectures of the world. The problem sounded simple indeed; even an elementary school student could understand it. But to prove it was unimaginably difficult. Even in later generations, people had to use electronic computers to complete as many as ten billion judgments to prove it. In this era, the problem was almost unsolvable.

Joseph brought this problem up as an excuse, and he also had the intention of taking the opportunity to pit the amateur scientist Marat against it. Generally speaking, problems like this—which sound easy to understand and seem to require only a spark of inspiration to solve—are always the most favored by amateur scientists.

Sure enough, Marat was immediately interested in the problem: "Is this problem very difficult?"

"Yes, very difficult. Personally, I feel that in terms of difficulty, it is no less than the doubling of the cube, the squaring of the circle, and the trisection of the angle," Joseph replied. "I have already proposed this problem in a letter to the Academy of Sciences, and I suggested that if no one has a method of proof in the short term, the problem should be made public and a reward offered."

This statement naturally made Marat even more excited; he even took out a small notebook and a pen: "Mr. Bonaparte, please repeat the problem."

Relying on this excuse, Joseph could appropriately maintain a certain distance from these people. Now, except for Napoleon, his two younger brothers were with him, and he needed to devote more energy to their upbringing.

Louis was still young, not yet ten, so specialized training for him was still premature. However, Lucien had already begun to show some talent in public speaking and art. Joseph was not an expert in history in his past life, so he did not know that Lucien had once served as the President of the Council of Five Hundred, and that Lucien had played a crucial role in the process of Napoleon becoming First Consul. But since Lucien had already shown talent in this area, letting him develop in this direction seemed fine.

When the time comes, Napoleon will focus on the military. As for me, I will ensure the family's good reputation and the general direction of France's development. Well, isn't the greatest advantage of a transmigrator knowing the general direction of history? As for Lucien, since he has a certain talent for public speaking and art, he can be responsible for public opinion and propaganda in the future. In a sense, roses are also weapons of war.

Joseph himself had almost no connection to the art world, so he had to rely on Armand for many of these things. However, Joseph was quite worried about Armand's attitude toward life. Lucien was at a critical stage in the formation of his values, and letting him learn from Armand would really be... fortunately, recently, after Armand started hanging out with that group of radicals, his conduct in this regard had improved quite a bit.