Escape (1)

Because of their wariness and fear of Mirabeau, the king and queen did not act on his advice. In hindsight, this may have been their best opportunity.

Both Mirabeau and Lafayette warned the King and Queen of the same thing: their relatives were unreliable. When choosing a place to flee, Mirabeau specifically emphasized that the King must not go too close to the border. One of the reasons for this was to avoid harming the King from those who shared his blood.

Some believe that the King and Queen did not heed Mirabeau's advice not only because they distrusted him, but also because they were unwilling to accept a constitutional system. Fleeing to Lyon alone would not be able to confront, let alone subdue, Paris. Perhaps some compromise could be reached, but Paris the upper hand.

However, on the matter of escaping, the Queen gradually persuaded the King that they must flee Paris. It was just that various events caused the escape to be repeatedly postponed.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were both typical examples of women raised in the palace, born and raised by women. They had absolutely no experience in planning an escape. If they could trust Mirabeau, this man who frequently fled for his affairs and debts could have provided considerable assistance.

However, firstly, neither the king nor the queen trusted Mirabeau, and secondly, God seemed to no longer favor the France royal family, who had always been dutiful to him— Mirabeau died suddenly.

Of course, Mirabeau wasn't poisoned by Pierre Bellec with aconite. But Mirabeau's death was indeed closely related to alcohol. It is said that during his previous period of financial hardship, he had given up some of his health-damaging habits, but after gaining new wealth, those habits worsened. For example, alcoholism, gluttony, and some other things that are best left unsaid.

It is said that Mr. Mirabeau would spend entire nights feasting with prostitutes. In order to continuously enjoy fine wine and food without being limited by the capacity of his stomach, Mr. Camille followed the example of the Rome —after they had eaten and drunk their fill, they would take some emetics, vomit profusely, and then continue eating and drinking.

In later generations, anyone with even a little health knowledge would know how destructive such practices were to one's health; however, people of that era were unaware of this. Therefore, after another all-night feast, Mirabeau suddenly fell ill. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and before long, the disease defeated Mirabeau.

Although Mirabeau was a libertine, he was erudite, insightful, and adept at mediating relationships. His death left the various factions in the council without a mediator who could be accepted by all.

However, Mirabeau's death did not have a significant impact on Joseph and his men for the time being. During this period, Joseph and Napoleon devoted almost all their time to building up their small army.

The size of this "Red Army" unit slightly exceeded the original estimate. Joseph and his men had originally only planned to form a company-level unit, but they soon discovered that due to the special nature of this unit, the number of supporting personnel required was far greater than expected. Upon careful calculation, including these personnel, the total number of people in the unit would definitely exceed six hundred.

The first direct consequence of increasing personnel is increased expenses. Just like those stories, the initial budget and the final cost of a project can always differ by several times.

Fortunately, after carefully reviewing the project, Lafayette still believed that the money was worthwhile, and the project was able to continue. However, he jokingly remarked:

"Joseph, of your army of over six hundred men, only about sixty are actually able to form ranks on the battlefield. Add the artillery and cavalry, and you have less than two hundred men, but nearly four hundred are support personnel. If I bring a force of about two hundred to fight you and you defeat them, they'll say, 'You used six hundred men against our two hundred.' But if I bring a force of two hundred, and you only have this many soldiers..."

Napoleon, who was following behind Joseph, remarked, "Our force can fight at least a thousand men."

Lafayette glanced at the young man, clearly mistaking Napoleon's words for youthful arrogance. However, Lafayette was a magnanimous man and didn't want to argue with a young man, so he simply smiled and said nothing more.

With Lafayette's support, the formation of this army proceeded smoothly. Two months later, most of the army's personnel and equipment were in place, and Joseph and Napoleon began their intensive work.

This army was a multi-service force, including not only infantry but also a relatively large artillery unit with eight cannons. Both Napoleon and Joseph believed that modern warfare was artillery warfare. In most cases, battle plans should revolve around how to effectively utilize artillery firepower.

The soldiers and junior officers in this unit were mostly handpicked by Lafayette from the French Army near Paris, so after more than a month of training, the entire unit was basically formed. However, neither Joseph nor Napoleon expected that their first mission would not be to repair other units, but to capture the King.

Joseph received the order in the morning. The order, issued by General Lafayette, stated that enemies of the revolution had "kidnapped" the royal family and taken them away from Paris. Therefore, the general ordered the army to immediately go on high alert and be ready for battle at any time.

"The King has been kidnapped?" Upon receiving this order, Napoleon couldn't help but retort with a cold laugh, "Who kidnapped him? Perhaps it was himself?"

"Napoleon, that's not something we should be thinking about right now," Joseph said, giving Napoleon a wink.

Napoleon understood that Joseph must have something to say, but it wasn't appropriate to say it in front of others. So he kept quiet.

"Does anyone know which direction the king went?" Joseph asked the messenger.

"Some say they might have gone to Lyon, others say they went towards Montmédy," the messenger replied. "The council has already sent representatives in those two directions. The general has ordered you to be ready to react at any time; you must act on his orders."

"Yes, go back and report to the general. We can be ready within ten minutes and await his orders at any time," Joseph replied.

The messenger saluted him, then ran off, jumped on his horse, and rode in another direction.

Seeing the messenger depart, Napoleon immediately said, "Joseph, war is imminent!" Joseph noticed that Napoleon's face had turned red with excitement.

"Calm down, the king hasn't escaped yet; he might be caught and brought back." Although Joseph's history wasn't good, he knew that Louis XVI had ultimately been guillotined. Therefore, he wasn't optimistic about the king's escape at all. The reason was simple: if the king could really escape so easily, why would he have been led to the guillotine?

But Napoleon clearly didn't see it that way. He said, "Joseph, you fool! How could you still have such illusions! Don't you think about how far a light carriage drawn by two Marat can travel in one night? I believe the King must have made preparations beforehand, with people waiting to meet him along the way. These people wouldn't even need to do anything else; they could simply prepare another light carriage, and as soon as the King arrives, they could switch carriages and then speed off at top speed. If he had set off at midnight, he should have already reached the border and joined up with the Royalist Party and the Austria. The National Assembly representatives couldn't possibly catch up with them, even if they ran themselves ragged. I think this math problem is extremely simple, even to a fool like you. I really don't know how you could still have such illusions..."

"I don't know either," Joseph said. "I just have this feeling that our king is incapable of doing things as decisively as you describe."

"Our king is indeed an indecisive fellow, but surely he isn't that stupid?" Napoleon said.

"Who knows?" Joseph shrugged.

However, on the afternoon of the third day, a new order arrived, confirming Joseph's suspicions—the king had indeed been intercepted!

"The parliamentary representatives intercepted the royal family in Varennes. Some mercenary cavalry are operating nearby, and only a small number of National Guard are responsible for protecting the king. General Lafayette orders you to set out immediately to protect the royal family and bring them back to Paris."

The messenger handed Joseph the order signed by Lafayette and left. Joseph immediately ordered his cavalry captain Robert, to lead the cavalry ahead, while he and Napoleon led the infantry behind.

Napoleon initially wanted to join the cavalry, but Joseph stopped him, as Joseph did not want himself or his brother to gain prominence at this time.

"The situation is still very chaotic. At this time, we must try our best to conceal our political stance. We are different from others. Others can only climb up by taking sides and through corruption. But we are different; we can rely on talent and corruption. Therefore, we must avoid taking dangerous sides as much as possible," Joseph said to Napoleon.

"My brother, you are too cautious," Napoleon said. From the slight upturn of his lips, Joseph could tell that what he really wanted to say was, "Joseph, you are a coward."