Crisis (1)

The National Assembly quickly appointed a man named Camacho to take over as commander of the Northern Army. Camacho was a regular at the Roland couple's salon; in other words, he was a Brissotins. It is said that he had participated in the Seven Years' War, serving as a platoon leader or similar position. Later, after the revolution, he also held some positions in the Ministry of War, and recently commanded troops to suppress a church rebellion in Brittany.

With such experience, they were actually unsuitable for the position of commander of the Northern Army. Carnot even thought that it would be better to appoint Napoleon or Joseph rather than Camacho. However, the Brissotins strongly opposed this. They felt that the Bonaparte brothers had too much of Jacobin influence, and that appointing one of them as commander of the Northern Army would not be a good thing for them. Their reasons were mainly threefold: First, the Bonaparte brothers were too young; second, their relationship with Brissotins was too close. If they held such an important position, Carnot might have a chance to become a dictator in the future. This was the reason Carnot proposed Carnot Napoleon Bonaparte for the position, and perhaps the previous series of failures... In short, it was all a conspiracy by Carnot; third, the Bonaparte brothers had let Dumouriez go, raising questions about their loyalty to the revolution.

On the other hand, Danton also supported the Brissotins. This was strange, because the Brissotins was now attacking Danton for personally going to Belgium and not finding any signs of Dumouriez's betrayal, which they believed must be because he had been paid by Dumouriez. Yet Danton actually supported them. Some people think that Danton wanted to compromise with the Brissotins, while others think that Danton saw the critical situation in the north and believed that another defeat was inevitable, so he agreed to let a Brissotins member become commander.

Anyway, this guy named Camacho became the commander of the Northern Army. This appointment greatly displeased Carnot, because he felt that the reasons for opposing the Bonaparte brothers' appointment as commanders of the Northern Army were all nonsense.

First, while the Bonaparte brothers were indeed young, commanding troops isn't based on long beards. How old was Alexander Great when he led his army into Persia? Younger than Napoleon is now. As for the Bonaparte brothers letting Dumouriez go, that was entirely for the greater good, because if the Northern Army lost its lower and middle-ranking officers, it would certainly collapse. It can be said that it was Napoleon's decisive action that saved the entire Northern Army!

As for the idea that he would become a dictator because of this? That was an insult to his own character. The hot-tempered Carnot threw his glove in front of the guy named Goriot who said that, and told him to choose between a pistol, a rapier, or a dagger. If he was a man, he should solve the problem like a man.

However, that guy Goriot actually backed down like that. He shamelessly apologized to Carnot, saying that's not what he meant. This is truly... What's even more despicable is that after apologizing, when people were mocking his cowardice, he actually said, "Carnot is a former officer; all the techniques of dueling are his expertise. His proposing a duel, regardless of the weapon used, is unfair, even tantamount to murder..."

Carnot was absolutely furious with this guy. "Tomorrow I'll propose a duel with one hand tied!"

"Mr. Carnot, I don't think you should duel with such a thing. A duel is an honorable thing, at least in the eyes of us Corsica. You're giving him honor by challenging him to a duel. But does such a thing deserve the honor of a duel? I think it doesn't at all! It only deserves to be whipped, like a master whipping a lazy donkey!" Upon hearing Carnot's words, Lucien, who always seemed to thrive on chaos, immediately dropped the math problems he was working on and ran out of his study.

"Mr. Carnot, take me with you tomorrow morning. We'll block that donkey at the Capitol gate. I'll use two pistols to hold off the others, and then you can give it a good beating, Mr. Carnot, whip it hard with a horsewhip!"

Carnot, hearing Lucien's increasingly incoherent ramblings, glared at him and said, "Lucien, what nonsense are you spouting? Have you finished your homework? Let me see it!"

"Not yet, just a little bit left, almost done, I'm going to do my homework." Lucien immediately slipped away into the study.

Lucien went into the study and obediently, or at least appeared to, did his homework. But after Carnot sat down, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that what Lucien said made sense and seemed feasible. So he couldn't sit still any longer, stood up, grabbed his coat and hat, and prepared to go out.

"Lazar, it's almost time to eat, where are you going?" his wife asked hurriedly.

"I have something urgent to attend to, don't wait for me," Carnot said, and then went out the door.

The next morning, Carnot brought two friends—Member of Parliament Espa and Member of Parliament Delon.

Three men blocked Goriot at the entrance to the Capitol. Without a word, Carnot lunged forward and punched Goriot squarely in the nose, causing blood to gush out and his nose to be crooked to one side. It was as if a sauce shop had been opened, with salty, sour, and spicy sauces all gushing out at once.

Goriot yelled, staggered back a few steps, covered his nose with one hand, pointed at Carnot with the other, and said indistinctly, "Carnot... you... you can be so... so barbaric... speak properly..."

Without another word, Carnot rushed forward and delivered another punch to Gorio's face, this time right in the eye socket. The punch split Goriot's eyelid, and a green eyeball burst out, as if a colorful silk shop had opened, with red, green, and purple colors blooming out.

Goriot lost his footing, leaned back, and fell to the ground with a thud.

The surrounding Brissotins members of parliament rushed to their aid, but then a gunshot rang out. Espa was seen holding a smoking pistol in one hand with the muzzle pointing upwards, and another pistol in the other, pointing them at the crowd. Delon to the side Goriot Carnot.

"Gentlemen, this is just a personal matter. I hope you will not interfere," Espa said politely, holding two pistols.

Perhaps because Espa's speech was so persuasive, even the Brissotins members were convinced, obediently standing by and watching, occasionally making such noises:

"Oh dear, Mr. Carnot, let's talk this out, please, please don't do this..."

"Ah... no... please don't do this..."

Carnot pulled a prepared riding crop from his coat and lashed it across Goriot was lying on the ground. "Serves you right for spreading rumors behind my back! Serves you right for slandering people! Serves you right..."

The whip rained down on Goriot's head and face. Goriot covered his head with his hands and rolled on the ground, whipped around. At first, he angrily cursed Carnot as a barbarian, but then he begged for mercy, "Mr. Carnot, please spare me! I'll never do it again! I'll never do it again!"

"Pah!" Carnot pointed his whip at Goriot and said, "If you're tough, I won't hit you anymore; if you beg for mercy, I'll still hit you!"

After the cursing, another barrage of whippings followed. Goriot alternated between begging for mercy, cursing, and weeping. It wasn't until Carnot, momentarily distracted, used too much force and broke the whip that Cano stopped, pointing a finger at Goriot's nose and saying, "You remember this! If you dare to talk nonsense behind my back again, I'll beat you every time I see you! You got it!"

Goriot curled up on the ground, repeatedly replying, "I understand, I understand..."

"Hmph!" Carnot threw down the broken whip, turned and walked away.

Seeing that Carnot had left, Espa twirled the pistol twice between his fingers, then put it in his pocket, bowed to the other councilors watching, and said, "Thank you for your cooperation."

Then he and Delon, who silently put away his pistol, followed Carnot away.

"Barbarians, they are... truly barbaric!" exclaimed the stunned Brissotins members of parliament.

"Carnot is really something! Such a scoundrel deserves to be beaten to death!" said the Mountain councilors.

Carnot's actions became headline news in Paris newspapers early the next morning. Naturally, Brissotins newspapers vehemently criticized him, centrists tried to smooth things over, and the Mountain, especially *Les L'Ami du peuple *, jumped up to applaud Carnot. This wasn't because Marat particularly liked Carnot, but because Marat particularly disliked Goriot, whom he considered a damned grain speculator! In Marat's view, every single one of these people should be hung on a lamppost.

"It's a pity that the military whips Mr. Carnot used were of such poor quality that they broke after only forty-two light lashes on that fat pig. We heard that the purchase of these whips was handled by Mr. Petit (a friend of Mr. Roland)." At the end of the article, <L'Ami du peuple> also subtly implied that some bigwigs in the Brissotins were making money through dishonest means.

Of course, as an important member of parliament and government, it was unacceptable for Cano to resolve a personal grudge in such a barbaric manner right in front of parliament. The people of Paris felt this was utterly inappropriate. Therefore, parliament held an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. After some bargaining, a very severe punishment was imposed on Carnot, demoting him from major general to Carnot and correspondingly reducing his salary by one grade. As for Goriot's medical expenses, parliament believed this was a matter for civil courts and therefore suggested that the two parties resolve the conflict through negotiation.

After beating up Goriot, Cano was demoted and had his salary docked, but Carnot didn't care at all. His rank was lowered, but his job position remained unchanged (and no one else could replace him). The position was there, and it wouldn't take long for his rank to be restored. As for the salary loss during that period, Carnot felt it was a very worthwhile investment for such a small change in mindset. Even his work enthusiasm increased significantly.

After a long day at work, Carnot returned home. He hung up his coat and hat, and his wife and Lucien greeted him.

"Mr. Carnot, many people have sent you gifts today," Lucien called out to Carnot.

"Someone gave me a gift? It's not my birthday today, what could it be?" Carnot asked.

"Lazar ..." His wife's expression was strange, "It's a whole bunch of riding whips..."