Inside the French Army's General Headquarters in Mexico, Lieutenant General Schieder stared blankly at the map. Recently, the rebels had suddenly become active again, as though they had been pumped full of stimulants.
The more than twenty thousand French troops stationed in Mexico had suppressed over a dozen uprisings in the past month. Yet it had done no good at all. Once a rebellion was put down in one region, rebel forces would spring up in another.
They were like chives—cut one crop, and another grew back. Unless they were uprooted entirely, they would always recover. The Mexican rebels could never be fully exterminated, and Lieutenant General Schieder had been considering why.
In the end, he traced the culprits to two causes: Maximilian I's reforms and interference from outside powers.
Deep down, he had already cursed the predecessor who had signed that treaty with Maximilian I until he was bloody and battered.
Who had ever heard of subcontracting the extermination of rebels? Fine, he admitted that the terms Maximilian I had offered were indeed generous, but no matter how favorable the terms were, they could not withstand rebels emerging one after another without end!
His predecessor had earned great credit for signing the treaty and securing massive benefits for France, and had now been transferred back to the homeland to enjoy himself. All the trouble had been left to him, the successor.
For France's reputation, the treaty still had to be honored. The Greater French Empire had only just been established; abandoning Mexico now would deal too severe a blow to morale, and politically, they would be the first to bear the consequences.
Abandoning Maximilian I would be easy, but once that step was taken, finding another collaborator in the future would be difficult.
After Napoleon III abandoned Mexico in