Joseph's Special Envoy

Joseph was woken up in bed by a messenger.

"Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, General Carnot wants you to come to the Ministry of War immediately. Something has happened, something has happened in the South."

"What? Something happened? Something happened in the south?" Upon hearing this, Joseph immediately jumped out of bed like a spring.

He quickly put on his uniform, hastily put a hat on his head, and hurriedly followed the messenger out the door, mounted his horse, and galloped towards the Ministry of War...

On the way, Joseph kept thinking, "Could something have happened to Napoleon? Could it be that my time travel caused a shift in the world line, resulting in Napoleon becoming a martyr?" After all, things on the battlefield often depend on luck. Napoleon liked to lead from the front, and what if a cannonball just happened to be there...?

Joseph grew increasingly frightened, his hands trembling so badly he could barely hold onto the reins. Fortunately, his residence wasn't far from the Ministry of War, Joseph arrived there in no time.

Joseph jumped off his horse and went straight to Carnot's office.

"Lazar, what happened?" Joseph asked as soon as he opened the door.

"Angers has fallen," Carnot said.

Joseph let out a long sigh, then widened his eyes and asked, "What? Angers has fallen? What did Napoleon say?"

"Napoleon didn't send any battle reports; the news came from the Jacobin Club in Angers," Carnot said. "I'm sorry to have called you out in the middle of the night; actually, I was just woken up myself. Catch your breath, and I'll tell you what I've learned."

Carnot gave Joseph a general overview of what he knew. The basic situation was as follows:

In the previous days of fighting, Napoleon's army had successfully repelled the rebel attacks. Just the day before yesterday, Napoleon declared that he had observed a decline in the enemy's morale and the intensity of their attacks, and therefore decided to launch a full-scale counterattack. As a result, Napoleon redeployed his main force from the city to prepare for the counter-offensive.

No sooner had the French Army force been withdrawn than Royalist Party elements in the city launched a rebellion. A portion of the National Guard had also been infiltrated by the Royalist Party, allowing them to quickly seize control of key locations in the city. Under Royalist Party leadership, the rebels swiftly captured Angers. Napoleon attempted a counter-offensive, but it failed, and he quickly retreated.

"I see. If that's the case, then the responsibility doesn't seem to lie entirely with Napoleon." Joseph immediately started racking his brains, trying to find a way to shift the blame to Napoleon.

"Joseph, no matter what, this is a serious defeat. I reckon that tomorrow—no, this morning at the crack of dawn— Paris will be in an uproar because of this. I might even be dragged to Parliament for questioning. But don't worry, if you look closely, although the rebels have captured Angers, the overall situation isn't that bad. I can handle Parliament."

"General, this is truly..." Joseph said.

"Wrong, I'm still a colonel," Carnot laughed. "I guess I won't be able to become a general again until Napoleon wins. Hmm, Joseph, let's analyze the situation together."

"Alright," Joseph said. "I wonder when that idiot Napoleon will send over the battle report."

"Ah, that should take another day," Carnot said. "I just wonder what his army's losses are."

As expected, Carnot was summoned to parliament for questioning after daybreak. It's said that a fellow named Goriot seized the opportunity to jump around and shout, accusing Napoleon Carnot treason and colluding with Napoleon. Carnot, Cano couldn't take it anymore, glared fiercely at the man, and then, the man suddenly lost control of his bladder!

"But Joseph, you know, some people in Parliament panicked. You also know how difficult it is to have a rational discussion with these irrational people. So in the end, they still passed a resolution to send a special envoy to Napoleon's army."

This outcome was actually within Joseph's expectations, so Joseph asked, "Whom do they intend to send?"

"At first, I really wanted to send Councilor Saint-Just. Although he is young, he is courageous, willing to learn, and doesn't interfere in things he doesn't understand. He has carried out several such missions before and has cooperated well with the military commander. Unfortunately, the situation in Paris has been very delicate these days, so he cannot leave. Therefore, we have to choose someone else."

"So who will be sent in the end?" Joseph asked.

"A guy named Joseph, just like you, but his last name Fouché," Carnot said.

"Joseph Fouché, the one who initially had a good relationship with Robespierre, then followed Lafayette, then Brissot, and now Fouché is with Marat?" Joseph said.

"That shameless scoundrel!" Carnot said disdainfully. "This guy is now following Marat and his gang, jumping around even more radically than Marat himself."

Although Carnot was closer to the Mountain, he held Marat and other radical Enragés in low regard.

"Converts are fanatical," Joseph said. "When a traitor joins a new group, he has to act more radical than others to gain acceptance. But wouldn't such a guy interfere with command in the army?"

"I spoke with Fouché, and he said that he was only responsible for recording Napoleon's commands so that Parliament could determine whether Napoleon had committed any misconduct; as for matters of military command, he would not interfere."

"I hope so," Joseph said. "General, Napoleon's battle report has arrived. I suspect that scoundrel might be plotting something behind our backs..."

When Joseph Fouché arrived with about two hundred Volunteer Army, Napoleon had already retreated to the vicinity of Le Mans Napoleon. Le Mans is famous in later generations for its racing cars, but at this time, there were no cars there, only horse-drawn carriages coming and going.

Le Mans was a very advantageous location for Napoleon as the site of the decisive battle. First, Le Mans had excellent land and water transportation; supplies from Paris could reach Le Mans directly via the canals between the Seine River and the Loire.

Secondly, Le Mans itself was quite well-defended. During the Hundred Years' War, Le Mans a key location repeatedly contested by the English and French armies, so the city had very strong walls. In the modern era of widespread artillery, these walls are somewhat outdated, but they are better than nothing. Considering the enemy's relatively low skill level, these walls were even more crucial. For General Delatrie, only by capturing Le Mans could he truly threaten Paris by cutting off the waterways.

"Welcome to my camp, Mr. Fouché." Napoleon, accompanied by his officers, greeted Fouché, who had been sent there as a special envoy, in the camp.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander Bonaparte," Fouché said. "I have been sent here to assist you in your work."

"Then please come here, and I will give you an overview of the current military situation," Napoleon said.

"No, that's not necessary, Commander Bonaparte," Fouché said. "I know nothing about military affairs, nor do I intend to interfere with your command. I'm here with only two tasks: one is to witness this battle, for which I only need my eyes and ears. As for the other task... I'm ordered to purge the lurking rebels in Le Mans —as far as I know, it was their sabotage that led to the fall of Angers. Such a thing must not be allowed to happen again in Le Mans. If necessary, Commander Bonaparte, I hope to have the support of your army."

"That's not a problem," Napoleon said.

Fouché was not lying. Although he attended many of Napoleon's military conferences afterward, he did not utter a single word at these meetings. Instead, he spent most of his time running around Le Mans, preoccupied with something unknown.

On the last day of May, revolution broke out again in Paris. Discontent with the economic situation, the Sans-culottes launched another uprising. They believed a group of traitors within Parliament were responsible for the current crisis. The insurgents surrounded the National Assembly, demanding the release of their chosen "traitors." Parliament yielded again to the Sans-culottes, and more than twenty members were arrested. From that night onward, the balance of power in Parliament was disrupted. The Mountain gained a clear advantage, enough to overwhelm their opponents on major issues.

This led to a large number of the Plain members leaving Paris, and later, when the National Assembly was in session, more than a third of the members were often absent.

In general, during the French Revolution, Paris was always one step ahead of the provinces. When Paris began advocating for a constitutional monarchy, the provinces were still hoping for the king's mercy; when Paris began advocating for a republic, most of the provinces were just beginning to accept a constitutional monarchy; and when Paris chose the more radical the Mountain, most of the provinces were more supportive of the Brissotins. Therefore, the Brissotins gained the upper hand in the provincial cities, further deepening the antagonism between the provinces and Paris.

This led to a decline in the strength of the Republicans, and the Royalist Party began to instigate new rebellions in other places. As the Vendée rebels gradually approached, various rumors began to circulate in Le Mans.

More sophisticated rumors suggested that the Vendée rebels numbered in the tens of thousands, with Britain and Spain troops also joining them; they were well-equipped and well-trained. Napoleon, defending Le Mans, had only one division of a little over five thousand men, and had lost a large number of artillery pieces in his previous retreat, so he was certainly no match for them.

This rumor is considered sophisticated because it's a mix of truth and falsehood, and it can be quite deceptive to those with a certain level of judgment. For example, it's true that Napoleon lost some cannons during his earlier retreat. However, those cannons were deliberately left behind by Napoleon to encourage the enemy to continue their advance. As for Napoleon, he wasn't lacking in cannons; prior to this, thanks to his brother's favoritism, he had already prepared a batch of cannons in Le Mans.

As for the low-level rumors, they were truly varied and quite interesting, even including stories of the twelve Paladin (Charlemagne's twelve knights) resurrected by God's will, bringing God's thunder to aid the Royalist Party army. Such things, of course, had no effect on knowledgeable people, but they could fool many illiterate people from the lower classes. Thus, undercurrents began to stir in Le Mans.