Clean Olympics

The Turkey and the France then held a series of negotiations on some specific issues, and then reached a formal agreement on some matters. Of course, the most crucial part was still the gentleman's agreement without a written document.

The first thing that was implemented was the training of the Turkey army.

Sending Turkey troops to France for training is a major undertaking, impossible to keep secret, and could cause many unnecessary misunderstandings. Moreover, sending them to France for training is expensive. While the France aren't worried about misunderstandings, the Turkey are concerned about potential misunderstandings from the Russia. As for the cost, the France are naturally even less concerned, but Turkey... if Turkey were that rich, would they need to resort to such an idea?

Due to security concerns, the training location was chosen to be an island in the Mediterranean Sea. After research, they set up the training base on Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea.

Rhodes was once the Christianity world's front line against the Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea. The Knights Hospitaller fought a major battle with the Turkey here, and the bastions left by the Knights Hospitaller still remain.

Although several centuries had passed since the Battle of Rhodes, the coastal defenses of the Barbary Pirates nations were not significantly different from the old bastions of Rhodes. The pashas of these pirate nations preferred to spend their money on pleasure and their ships.

Of course, the cannons mounted on their old bastions were no longer the outdated equipment from the Battle of Rhodes. According to interrogations of captured pirates, some important gun emplacements had been fitted with new muzzle-loading rifled guns produced in France.

Generally speaking, warships cannot directly confront fortified gun emplacements. In the original history, Lord Nelson of Britain even said, "A fortified gun emplacement with one cannon is enough to confront a warship with a hundred cannons."

This is because, compared to warships, fortified gun emplacements have the following advantages:

First, the fortifications cannot be sunk. For a warship to destroy the cannons on a fortification, it would only be possible for its shells to accurately hit the enemy cannons. However, warships can be destroyed, so the cannons on the fortifications only need to hit the warship.

Moreover, the warships were constantly rocking, while the fortified gun emplacements remained solid and immovable unless facing an earthquake. This made the firing accuracy of the cannons on the fortified gun emplacements far superior to that of the naval guns. In addition, the cannons on the fortified gun emplacements had been test-fired in the surrounding waters, with each shot fired in a grid pattern, making their accuracy even more terrifying. Generally speaking, in a firefight between warships and fortified gun emplacements, unless there is a significant difference in the cannons and personnel training between the two sides, as in another timeline when the Qing Dynasty first encountered British gunboats, the fortified gun emplacements would always have the advantage.

However, none of this was a problem for the French Navy at present, because the France -made muzzle-loading rifled guns in the hands of the Barbary Pirates were simply unable to penetrate the armor of the new France warships. In fact, at least for now, there was no gun in the world that could penetrate the armor of the "Imperial" warship, including the "Imperial's" own guns.

This didn't mean there were no weapons that could threaten the "Imperial" battleship; at the very least, both the Britain and France possessed weapons capable of sinking it—mines. And nobody knew if the Britain had sold some of these to the Barbary Pirates. Therefore, the French Navy needed to prepare some brave and fearless minesweepers for its missions. Well, considering the level of minesweeping at that time, perhaps "mine-clearing ships" would be a more appropriate term.

Instructors from the French Army also arrived in Rhodes. Under their command, the Turkey first modified the fortresses left behind by the Knights Hospitaller, roughly resembling the harbor forts of the Barbary countries.

During this process, the Turkey also sent envoys to those Barbary countries.

This was customary. Although the Barbary Pirates states were essentially independent, they still maintained considerable contact with Turkey, with frequent exchanges of envoys. Moreover, at this juncture, these Barbary Pirates states were eager to use Turkey to ascertain the France's true intentions and explore ways to ease tensions. Unbeknownst to France, the people they trusted and who shared the same deity were planning to sell them out for money.

However, the Ottoman Empire system was outdated, making their secrecy quite poor. Information about Selim III training a new army on Rhodes quickly spread to other parts of Turkey. For these people, the strengthening of the Sultan's forces was hardly a good thing.

These people currently have few ways to oppose the Sultan, as this falls within his jurisdiction. They are simply astonished at where the Sultan obtained the money to train a new army. Training an army is very expensive, and they are acutely aware of Turkey's economic situation. Therefore, they understand that Selim III could not possibly have obtained so much money without alerting them. Considering the France instructors France weapons, they speculate that the Sultan must have borrowed a considerable amount from the France. Of course, the France are never without profit; their willingness to lend money to the Sultan must have a reason.

Thinking this way, one can't help but let their imagination run wild, even conjuring up thoughts of whether Sudan is planning a massive anti-corruption campaign domestically (after all, Turkey officials, if investigated, will certainly have enough economic crimes to warrant execution), and then arresting and beheading anyone he dislikes, using the confiscated money to repay loans and replenish the national treasury...

These people, of course, had to be on high alert, and while they were making preparations, they also leaked the news to others—such as the Austria and Russia.

Both Austria and Russia are Turkey's enemies. Therefore, they certainly do not want to see Turkey become stronger, and they will definitely take some measures to hinder Turkey. As long as they take some action, well, His Majesty the Sultan's power will be restrained, and then they will still have time to react.

In Paris, a little south of the main stadium lies the former royal hunting grounds. King Louis XVI had two hobbies: making various locks and hunting. In fact, on the day that would determine his fate—when Paris women stormed Palace of Versailles, ultimately forcing his family to relocate to Paris —King Louis XVI was hunting right there when he learned of this.

After the revolution, especially after the king was overthrown, the royal hunting grounds were left unattended, and the animals naturally ended up in the stomachs of nearby villagers. Today, this area is naturally public land managed by the government, and the equestrian and shooting competitions of the Olympic Games are held here.

The paved road leading here has long been laid, and the venues and stands for the equestrian and shooting competitions have been set up. Some France athletes participating in these two events have naturally been given the privilege of training here in advance. This is one of the natural advantages of being the host country, as they have more time to familiarize themselves with the venue.

Pauline brought her thoroughbred horse, Bobby, here today. A few days ago, she took Berdon to have it appraised by several family members. To make sure Joseph could see that Berdon met his criteria, she even had Berdon grow a small mustache and wear a low-cut top—so that Berdon's apple could be clearly seen.

Overall, everything went relatively smoothly. Both Joseph and Napoleon were quite satisfied with the man Pauline had brought back. Moreover, Berdon was no slouch either; he was tall, not some kind of disabled person needing height-increasing shoes, and had regular features and a sunny disposition. Their future children would likely be quite adorable. Furthermore, there seemed to be no hereditary diseases (Lucien had already investigated this), so the older brothers had no objections. As for Pauline's mother, she truly was a mother-in-law looking at her son-in-law—the more she looked, the more she liked him.

Since Pauline had kept her promise, her brothers naturally gave her the green light to participate in the Games. Thus, Pauline officially became one of the athletes representing France at the Olympic Games.

Now that Joseph had agreed to let Pauline participate, he naturally wanted to find a way to help Pauline win the championship. Otherwise, it would be better if she didn't participate at all. To this end, Joseph even paid for a very good Britain horse for Pauline.

Britain are the fastest and most agile horses in the world. They are very expensive to raise, and most people simply can't afford them. But for the Bonaparte family, this was no problem.

With such a thoroughbred, Pauline had a solid foundation for winning the championship. In addition, Pauline herself had a clear advantage: her relatively small weight. This also helped the horse run faster and jump higher.

More importantly, it's about familiarity with the course. From now on, Pauline can practice constantly on the official competition course, so both she and Bobby will become very familiar with it and be able to perform at their best. Moreover, the distance and height of the obstacles in show jumping have been optimized specifically for Pauline and her horse.

Besides horse racing, Pauline also participated in shooting competitions. To be honest, Pauline's shooting skills were excellent by ordinary standards. The reason is simple: shooting is an extremely expensive sport. Especially in this era before the development of synthetic ammonia technology, all gunpowder came from expensive natural saltpeter or even more expensive saltpeter. Every shot fired cost money. Most people, even if they had a gun, could only practice aiming with a blank gun and rarely had the opportunity to fire live ammunition. In some countries, soldiers in the military might not fire more than a few dozen live rounds from enlistment to retirement unless they encounter a real war.

But for someone like Pauline, who has the power of money, this isn't a problem. So, she shoots a lot of live ammunition, and naturally, her marksmanship is quite good. However, according to her instructors, Pauline's natural shooting talent isn't actually that great. But if you don't have the talent, you can always make up for it with money.

In addition to the advantages of the venue and teamwork, especially the double-sided skeet, how to launch the skeet, which direction and angle to launch it at are all predetermined for Pauline. Therefore, as long as she shoots more, her hit rate will naturally be much higher than that of foreign athletes who only arrived a few days before the official competition and did not have more than 45 minutes to adapt to the venue before the competition.

As her brothers, this was all Joseph Napoleon could do for Pauline. It was said that one of Joseph's students had invented a highly potent stimulant that could significantly improve athletic performance. Joseph had even considered giving it to... well, to Pauline's horse, of course. After all, if they had an advantage in medical and pharmaceutical technology, wouldn't it be a disservice to the "modern" in Olympic Games if they didn't use it?

However, when experiments were conducted on other horses, problems arose where the horses became overly excited, leading to decreased coordination and obedience. The final conclusion was that while it significantly improved the horses' athletic performance, it increased the risk of accidents. Joseph then decisively—or rather, temporarily—discontinued the event. This led to the first modern Olympic Games being referred to by later generations as the "only clean Olympic Games."

Of course, having Pauline prepare for the Olympic Games also had another benefit: she was seen visiting entertainment venues like the Moulin Rouge far less often.

Time passed gradually in this process. The Olympic flame was getting closer and closer to France. In the north, Victor accompanied the Olympic flame to Saint Petersburg, the capital of Russia. Saint Petersburg held a large-scale torch relay around the city to celebrate. After staying in Saint Petersburg for three days, the flame was put on a ship and sailed through the Baltic Sea to other countries.

Meanwhile, the Olympic flame has already left Spain, traveling to North America aboard a France steam-sail hybrid passenger ship called the "Hermes." Judging by the time, it should have arrived in the United States by now.

Furthermore, according to a report in the newspaper * Science Truth Daily *, the Papal States have officially registered to participate in this Olympic Games. (This is the only time in Vatican history that it has participated in the Olympic Games.) Moreover, His Holiness the Pope will personally lead the Papal States delegation to Paris to participate in this grand event for all humanity and to bestow a blessing upon the assembly.