Arrangements for the Brothers

Guided by this principle, from then on Joseph not only refrained from opposing Marat's crackpot theories, but even praised them.

But everything was easier said than done. Deciding to follow the policy of "agree with him, encourage him, and raise him into a colossal idiot" wasn't hard. What was hard was forcing himself to endorse an idiotic opinion. It was genuinely painful. Joseph was even reminded of a story he'd heard in his previous life about Zhang Zongchang, the great poet of the Republic of China.

They said that Commander Zhang had put together a collection of his poems—masterpieces like "Great Ming Lake, the lake is grand; on Great Ming Lake, lotus flowers bloom; on the lotus flowers sit frogs; poke them and they hop"—and then summoned an old gentleman to appraise it. At first, the old man didn't know Zhang Zongchang had written them. After reading the poems, he simply told the truth: "This is complete nonsense!"

Commander Zhang flew into a rage. "You dare say my poems are 'complete nonsense'? You old bastard must be tired of living! Guards! Drag this old geezer out and shoot him!"

The old gentleman realized he was in trouble and hurriedly fell to his knees, begging, "Commander, Commander, my eyes are old and dim. I didn't see clearly just now... Let me take another look..."

Zhang Zongchang had his guards release the old man for the moment, then patted the pistol at his waist and said, "You old bastard, this time you'd better look carefully!"

The old gentleman examined Commander Zhang's poems twice more, very carefully. Then he sighed, set down the collection, stood up, and said to Zhang Zongchang, "Commander, you'd better have your men drag me out and shoot me after all."

Now Joseph felt very much like telling Marat, who was speaking so animatedly that spittle flew everywhere, "You'd better have me dragged to the guillotine."

Fortunately, Danton seemed to think very little of Marat too, and stepped in to argue with him. Marat let Joseph off and threw himself wholeheartedly into a dispute with Danton instead.

Armand introduced Joseph to a few more people, telling them that Joseph was a rising star in science and had a keen eye for art as well. For instance, quite a few elements in his unfinished Spartacus had come from Joseph's suggestions.

They began to chat. When young Frenchmen got together, if they weren't talking about women, they were certainly talking about politics. Joseph was surprised to discover that the future Jacobin bigwigs around him—though the most famous of them, Robespierre, was absent—didn't seem particularly radical in their political views at this point.

Marat advocated a constitutional monarchy—perhaps because he had studied in Britain. Danton was more conservative. He believed an enlightened monarchy was the best system, an opinion broadly in line with Voltaire's. Louis's political views leaned toward Marat's, or even more toward Oreno's, though it was clear that he disliked Marat more than he disliked Danton. Their host, Abel, wasn't very concerned with the specifics of government. What mattered more to him was protecting the rights of the Sans-culottes at the bottom of society.

Strictly speaking, Oreno was almost the only one who supported a republic. Even he wasn't especially committed to it, since he thought that if a republic couldn't be achieved, a constitutional monarchy might still be acceptable. In short, if some force suddenly flung them a few years into the future, their future selves would surely send them to the guillotine as "counterrevolutionaries"—or simply hang them from the streetlamps.

"That's only natural. It's precisely because they're still relatively moderate—in fact, even the most radical young people today are only radical to this extent—that the Duke of Orleans and the others think they can use them, these little sparks buried in a pile of dry kindling, to lift themselves onto the throne. They don't realize that once the fire catches, the situation may no longer be theirs to control. The one who plays with fire will surely get burned." Joseph couldn't help thinking this.

Handling a gathering like this wasn't difficult for Joseph. He had come from the future and had seen all kinds of political theories, systems of government, and political experiments. Dealing with these future bigwigs, who were still politically immature, was no problem. Whatever opinions he casually tossed out left the young men feeling deeply enlightened. Even Louis, usually as composed as a marble statue, exclaimed, "Who would have thought there was a man as versatile as Bonaparte?"

At first, Joseph had been rather hesitant about accepting Armand's invitation to attend these "radicals'" gatherings. In the coming revolutionary upheaval, most of these people would either send countless others to the guillotine or end up there themselves; some would do both. Getting too close to such dangerous people could be dangerous in itself. But the Revolution was an unavoidable torrent, and saying it couldn't be avoided meant that not knowing these dangerous men and having nothing to do with them was just as dangerous. So in the end, Joseph decided he had to deal with them, while keeping a healthy distance. He wanted them to like him enough that no one would target him in the future, but he couldn't get too close and risk being dragged into political struggles unnecessarily.

All in all, Joseph thought he'd handled himself fairly well. Even Marat had warmed to him somewhat after Joseph promised to continue researching color blindness and even ceded to him the honor of discovering it. Marat still had a habit of speaking with barbs and jabs, but Joseph felt he didn't harbor much ill will toward him.

In this era, an outstanding scientist held a position much like that of a great Confucian scholar in ancient China. Such people might not necessarily wield power, but associating with them was an honor. So in the end, everyone sincerely invited Joseph to attend their gatherings more often. That didn't fit Joseph's plans, however, so he had to apologize. He said he would very much like to join them regularly, but he was currently working on an important mathematical problem and would likely be extremely busy for a while, so he might not be able to attend.

"What sort of problem have you run into, Mr. Bonaparte?" Marat asked with great interest.

Joseph spread his hands. "It sounds simple enough, but when you try to study it seriously, you don't know where to begin. Perhaps all I need is a spark of inspiration. Well, one of my students told me he'd noticed that any map seemed to need only four colors to distinguish all its different regions. He just didn't know how to prove it mathematically. I thought the problem was interesting and didn't seem too difficult, so I tried to prove it. Well, I still haven't made the slightest progress."

This was what posterity would call the Four Color Conjecture, one of the "four great mathematical conjectures of the world." It sounded simple; even a grade-schooler could understand it. But proving it was unimaginably difficult. In the future, people would use electronic computers to check as many as ten billion cases before finally proving it. In this era, the problem was practically impossible to solve.

Joseph had brought up the problem as an excuse, but he also wanted to take the opportunity to spring a trap on Marat, the crackpot theorist. Problems that were easy to understand and seemed solvable with just a spark of inspiration were usually the ones that appealed most to crackpots.

Sure enough, Marat was immediately interested. "Is this problem very difficult?"

"Yes, very difficult. Personally, I think it's no easier than doubling the cube, squaring the circle, or trisecting an angle," Joseph replied. "I've already raised the problem in a letter to the Academy of Sciences, and suggested that if no one can find a way to prove it soon, it should be made public and a prize offered."

This naturally excited Marat even more. He even pulled out a small notebook and a pen. "Mr. Bonaparte, please repeat the problem for me."

With this excuse, Joseph could keep a suitable distance from these people. Now, apart from Napoleon, both of his younger brothers were with him. He needed to devote more of his attention to raising them.

Louis was still young, not yet ten, so it was too early to give him specialized training. But Lucien was already beginning to show some talent for public speaking and the arts. Joseph hadn't been particularly knowledgeable about history in his previous life. He didn't know that Lucien had once served as president of the Council of Five Hundred or that he'd played a crucial role in Napoleon's rise to power. But since Lucien had already shown talent in those areas, it seemed reasonable to develop them.

"Napoleon will devote himself to the military. As for me, I'll safeguard the family's good name and the broad direction of France's development. Well, isn't knowing the broad course of history the greatest advantage a time traveler has? Lucien, since he has some talent for speaking and the arts, can take charge of public opinion and propaganda in the future. In a sense, roses are weapons of war too."

Joseph himself had almost no connections in the art world, so he would have to ask Armand for help with many of those things. But Joseph had serious misgivings about Armand's lifestyle. Lucien was at a crucial age, when his outlook on life was taking shape. Letting him learn from Armand would be... Fortunately, lately Armand had been mixing with that crowd of radicals, and his behavior in that regard had improved quite a bit.