Chapter Summaries

Marquess Wellesley pressured Algiers into ceding territory to Morocco and then turned his attention to a possible coup in Tripoli that could threaten French influence in Tunis. In Paris, the High Court ruled that the Duke of Chartres could inherit the Duke of Orléans' estate in full despite the Crown Prince's apparent intentions.

• Loom Zaganos negotiated with Marquess Wellesley, who insisted Algiers cede the territory west of Varse nis in exchange for British help.
• The Sultan of Morocco used the negotiations to demand new trade terms from Britain, and Algiers agreed to cede two provinces to Morocco.
• Marquess Wellesley received a letter reporting that Ali Benjiul was meeting with opponents of Tripoli's Pasha, so he ordered Colonel Acton to sail there.
• Marquess Wellesley planned to use Morocco and Algiers to pressure Tunis from the west while encouraging a coup in Tripoli from the east.
• At the Paris High Court, Danton offered no objection to Duke of Chartres inheriting the Duke of Orléans' estate, and the court approved the inheritance.

Danton delayed the order to unfreeze Duke of Orléans’s estate by presenting evidence of illegal investments, tax evasion, and other offenses, with Bernie calculating enormous fines. He left Duke of Chartres’s side facing the likely loss of the estate and began introducing charges of inciting riots.

• Danton asked the court to verify the value of Duke of Orléans’s estate before unfreezing its assets, citing potential losses to creditors.
• Danton summoned Bernie, who presented financial records and calculated fines for Duke of Orléans’s illegal investments and unpaid taxes.
• Lawyer Balthasar protested that the investment violations were minor and disputed the fines, but could not produce evidence against the contemporaneous fine notice.
• Danton listed more than ten fines based on investment, tax, property, and slave-trading offenses, leaving Duke of Chartres’s side in despair.
• Danton began presenting charges that Duke of Orléans had incited riots across provinces in The South.

Joseph reviewed the Duke of Orléans's mounting fines and received Fouche's intelligence on political discontent among the Old Nobles. He recognized that France's reforms risked alienating a class the royal family still depended on, and resolved to manage the transition toward capitalism carefully.

• Dibore adjourned the Duke of Orléans's trial, while Danton calculated fines that could leave the Duke of Chartres with an enormous debt.
• Joseph read that the Duke of Orléans's estate was already insolvent and expected the final fines to approach 90 million livres or more.
• Fouche reported that Operation Poker Card's core personnel had gone on leave and that the Police Intelligence Division would soon become the Intelligence Department.
• Fouche told Joseph that Old Nobles were gathering in clubs, opposing reforms, and circulating complaints and the song Leave My Land.
• Joseph connected the nobles' growing pessimism to Paris Angel's falling revenue and considered how to preserve their support while advancing industrialization.

Joseph worked to expand France’s economy through agriculture, industry, and trade, advancing a Grain Yield Decree and planning gas streetlights for Paris and Versailles. The chapter ended with Louis XVI showing Joseph the Power Loom he had requested.

• Joseph decided France needed to enlarge its domestic economy and wrote down industry, agriculture, and trade as priorities.
• Joseph explained the benefits of Gas Lamps to Mirabeau and asked him to prepare a streetlight plan and preliminary budget for Paris and Versailles.
• Joseph considered fertilizers and chemical manufacturing as ways to increase grain yields and develop French industry.
• The Cabinet Meeting passed the Grain Yield Decree, which Joseph expected to implement nationwide after its registration with the High Court.
• Louis XVI showed Joseph the Power Loom in the Royal Workshop.

Joseph praised Louis XVI for building an improved Automatic Loom and ordered the Royal Armory to make the first batch for Lyon, while Louis began developing a Percussion Cap Rifled Gun. On the way to Reims, Joseph also pressed Minister of Agriculture Venio to distribute Stone Fertilizer and expand transport capacity.

• Joseph told Louis XVI that his Automatic Loom could help France compete with British textile manufacturers and protect Lyon’s factories and French revenues.
• Louis XVI demonstrated the loom, explained his improvements, and gave Joseph the manufacturing documents and the names of the craftsmen who had built it.
• Joseph ordered Frauhant and the other craftsmen to produce at least ten looms at the Royal Armory and send them to Lyon.
• Joseph and Louis XVI began planning a Percussion Cap Rifled Gun with refined rifling, an adjusted firing chamber, and a new cartridge.
• Joseph told Venio to deliver Stone Fertilizer to every parish after spring planting, and Venio warned that transport capacity could delay distribution.
• Joseph directed Venio to expand Wooden Railways and use large-scale composting where transport was too difficult.

Joseph instructed Venio on plans to improve ordinary people's diets by expanding vegetable farming, teaching cooking, and using church networks and rail transport. He also ordered the promotion of Soybean, which could improve both food production and military logistics.

• Joseph told Venio to work with the church on cooking lessons and a simple cooking manual for women.
• Joseph proposed turning former noble hunting grounds into farmland and subsidizing vegetable cultivation near cities while arranging transport to markets.
• Joseph recommended crops including Chili Pepper, Asparagus, artichoke, and Tomato, and suggested preserving Tomato as Tomato Sauce.
• Venio explained that Soybean was already known in France, and Joseph ordered its cultivation promoted, especially in the northern provinces, for use as warhorse feed.
• Eman announced that the Wooden Railway ended near Reims, so Joseph and Venio had to continue by carriage.

Joseph toured the Nancy Industrial Development Zone and saw rapid growth in standardized production and iron output. He arranged a meeting with ironworks owners and technicians to discuss an important improvement, while Murdoch reported that the United Steam Engine Company had tripled in scale.

• Venio took on Joseph's agricultural assignments and went to Nancy to oversee potato purchases.
• Joseph arrived at the Nancy Industrial Development Zone, where Lamo showed him the expanding factories and widespread adoption of standardized production.
• Lamo reported that Viscount Olivier's ironworks was producing nearly 98 million pounds of iron annually and that the zone's total output was expected to exceed 200 million pounds that year.
• Joseph learned that Wooden Railway construction consumed most of the zone's iron output and asked Lamo to summon ironworks owners and technicians for a meeting about Hot-Blast Ironmaking.
• Eman wiped soot from Joseph's face as Murdoch told him that the United Steam Engine Company had tripled in scale over the past year.

Joseph visited United Steam Engine Company and praised Murdoch for developing its steam engines, then watched the new high-pressure LJ26H run. He tasked Murdoch with developing coal-gas streetlights for Paris and offered to establish a company to bring the invention to market.

• Joseph praised Murdoch for helping United Steam Engine Company produce reliable LJ15 engines and complete its production line.
• Murdoch told Joseph that the LJ26H prototype had run for more than sixty hours and reached twenty-six horsepower, and said mass production was expected to begin early next month.
• Murdoch demonstrated the LJ26H at the company's Second Assembly Yard, where Joseph watched it operate.
• Murdoch said he and John hoped to build a steam engine exceeding fifty horsepower, but Joseph set that project aside for the time being.
• Joseph instructed Murdoch to develop coal-gas streetlights for Paris and offered to establish a Gas Lamp Company with around three million livres in investment.

Joseph recruited Murdoch to the Gas Lamp Company and planned to use retired gun barrels for gas pipes. He then offered France’s ironworks owners a furnace-temperature technology through a new steel association, using membership rules to coordinate production and sales.

• Murdoch accepted 5% of the Gas Lamp Company in exchange for his gas technology, and Joseph approved using retired Flintlock Gun barrels for gas pipes.
• Joseph considered creating a government Talent Introduction Plan and Louis Prizes to attract skilled people to France.
• The next morning, ironworks owners and technicians met Joseph, who explained how raising Blast Furnace temperatures could increase iron output and improve its quality.
• Joseph proposed a France Steel Technology Association that would share production technology while coordinating sales restrictions and quality assessments.
• Viscount Olivier asked how the ironworks could obtain the technology, and Joseph said members would have to follow the association’s rules.

Joseph organized French steelworks into the Steel Technology Association and promoted new smelting methods, then received word of a coup in Tripoli with suspected British involvement. He redirected his plans and ordered troops to sail for Tunis as he prepared to go there himself.

• Joseph reassured steelworks owners that the Association would restrict only dangerous buyers, while its quality assessments would rate companies and its technicians would teach members new smelting methods.
• Joseph left Nancy for Saint-Etienne, where he promoted coke iron smelting and planned to continue to Lyon to introduce mass-produced Automatic Looms.
• A Royal Armory report warned Joseph that machining problems had delayed the first ten Automatic Looms until the end of the following month.
• Eman decoded a report that Ali Benjiul and dissatisfied nobles had staged a coup in Tripoli, with British weapons, equipment, and funding reportedly supporting the plot.
• Joseph ordered Andre to lead two regiments from Montpellier to Toulon and sail for Tunis, then decided to travel there himself.

Sultan Hamid I approved sending Ottoman troops to Tripoli, while Joseph learned that British-backed forces and Moroccan reinforcements threatened Tunis. Joseph ordered troops to guard the Algiers border and requested more soldiers from the homeland, leaving Tunis bracing for a worsening military situation.

• Hamid I agreed with Grand Vizier Yusuf to send Ottoman troops to garrison Tripoli and challenge Mamluk control of Egypt.
• Joseph met Joanne and Ishaq in Tunis, where Ishaq described Benjiul's rebel forces attacking Ali I's remaining troops at Zuwara.
• Ishaq reported that Morocco had sent twelve thousand Imperial Guards to Algiers and that the Algiers Guard Corps had obtained British-supplied flintlock guns.
• Joseph ordered the arriving Moulins Legion to guard the Algiers border and learned that only about four thousand Tunis Legion troops were combat-ready.
• Joseph wrote to Berthier requesting reinforcements from the homeland and learned that captives were being used as laborers to build roads across Tunis.

Joseph planned to relocate the Tunisian Guard Corps to New Zealand to develop its wool industry, while Joanne reported rumors and a pamphlet encouraging Tunisians to resist French rule. The chapter left Joseph examining the propaganda and considering how to counter it.

• Joey told Joseph that more than thirty thousand Tunisian Guard Corps troops remained on Djerba Island, where they were at risk of escaping or starving without supplies.
• Joseph decided the troops should be sent to New Zealand, with Gemini Trading Company transporting them and French settlers managing the colony.
• Joey recalled that the British had a colonial claim to New Zealand, though the islands had not yet been colonized.
• Joanne reported that rumors and a pamphlet had begun circulating in Tunis, urging Tunisians to kill or expel the French.
• Joseph read the pamphlet and recognized its claims as an attempt to undermine French rule in Tunis.

Joseph responded to Tunisian tribal resistance and tax delays by avoiding a military crackdown and launching a story campaign to unite public opinion. He had Tunisian writers create and circulate a Roman epic, and the chapter ended with the story turning locals against English spies and their collaborators.

• Joey reported that more than a hundred Tunisian tribes resisted government orders and delayed taxes, while only small tribes cooperated.
• Joseph decided against punishing the tribes by force and asked Joey to prepare the Tunis division of the Star of France competition.
• Joseph told Hilada and two other writers the legend of Froi and the Magic Ring, and they wrote Lord of the Ring: Roman Raiders.
• Joseph sent the manuscript to Joey for printing, and officials spread it by having people recite it in the streets.
• Tunisians embraced the epic and condemned the Ottomans and English, while local accomplices reported two English spies who had spread rumors about Tunis.

Joseph investigated British spies in Tunis as Ottoman forces arrived in Tripoli and near Tunis, raising fears of a British-backed crisis. He concluded that Britain was trying to draw France into an unaffordable North African war, while Lord Talmos received news that Morocco posed no immediate threat.

• Joseph learned that Tunisian agents had captured two British Naval Intelligence Bureau spies and ordered Ishaq to send them to Paris for Talleyrand to use in a possible exchange for Jeanne.
• Joseph considered reinforcing Tunis but judged that France could not afford a major North African campaign or risk a wider war over Algiers and Tripoli.
• Ishaq reported that more than ten thousand Ottoman Army troops had landed in Tripoli and declared Benjiul to be Pasha.
• Joseph recognized the simultaneous Ottoman deployments and British involvement as an open conspiracy intended to provoke France into an exhausting conflict.
• Lord Talmos told Marquess Wellesley that Hamid I was critically ill and that Yusuf did not intend to threaten Tunis.

Joseph proposed using Kashir Palace’s luxury and court titles to draw Tunisian tribal chiefs away from their tribes, making tax collection easier without a military campaign. As he prepared to return to Paris at Queen Mary’s summons, British officials discussed exploiting the conflict around Tripoli to expand their influence in North Africa.

• Joseph urged Joanne to invite tribal chiefs and other power holders to Kashir Palace, grant them noble titles, and entice them with lavish entertainment funded by Tunisian provincial treasuries.
• Joseph ordered Joanne to build an amusement park and expand Kashir Palace, while Joanne vowed to collect the tribes’ taxes within four months.
• Marquess Wellesley and Lord Talmos discussed how Benjiul, Morocco, and potentially Algeria could pressure Tunis while Britain sought an opportunity to intervene in Mediterranean affairs.
• Queen Mary summoned Joseph back to Paris after learning he had traveled to North Africa during the upheaval in Tripoli.
• Joseph boarded his carriage under guard and looked back at Kashir Palace as he departed.

Double Company sent five thousand laborers from Tunis toward New Zealand while Marion du Fresne led a smaller vanguard to establish contact with the Maori. Following Joseph’s guide, Marion found a harbor and secured a friendly welcome, leaving the exploration team preparing to establish the colony.

• Tunisian authorities and Gemini Trading Company screened former Tunisian Guard Corps members and loaded them onto ships bound for New Zealand.
• Double Company’s fleet departed with five thousand laborers, while Marion du Fresne led an exploration team east into New Zealand’s interior.
• Maori warriors confronted Marion’s team and asked them to put down their guns, so Marion followed the guide’s instructions and approached peacefully.
• Marion du Fresne’s team exchanged a traditional nose-touch greeting with the Maori and met the local Hapu chief.
• The Maori chief welcomed the explorers with food and a celebration after Marion gave him a wool blanket.
• Marion du Fresne’s expedition found a harbor and established a beach camp as the New Zealand colony began.

Marion du Fresne negotiated with Tuai over French use of Maori land, but Tuai refused to sell more than 500 mu. Marion offered a wool-raising arrangement that left the land and sheep with the Maori, and Tuai accepted in exchange for muskets and other supplies.

• Marion du Fresne offered Tuai and Mataro gifts, then asked to purchase 50,000 mu of land for France.
• Tuai rejected the offer and insisted that he would sell at most 500 mu in exchange for muskets.
• Marion proposed using the land to raise French-provided sheep while the Maori kept ownership of the land and sheep and received payment for their work and wool.
• Tuai agreed to the arrangement after Marion promised 500 matchlock guns, ammunition, gunpowder, clothing, and blankets for the 50,000 mu of wasteland.

Marion du Fresne secured land agreements with Maori chiefs and oversaw the beginnings of a French settlement at New Marseille Port. After returning from New Zealand, Joseph learned that the General Staff planned to send troops to Tunis.

• Chief Tuai agreed to sell Marion du Fresne one thousand acres for French ownership, and Marion chose the place where he had landed.
• Priest Dietri persuaded Mataro that the Maori supreme god and the Christian God were the same, and Mataro began making the sign of the cross.
• Marion du Fresne and Chief Tuai completed agreements for fifty thousand acres of pastureland and one thousand acres of private-use land, with Matchlock Guns given as a deposit.
• France’s royal flag was raised at New Marseille Port, while Marion du Fresne secured further land agreements and Maori and company workers began building the settlement.
• Joseph arrived in Toulon and read orders to send ten thousand troops to Tunis, with another ten thousand planned afterward.

Joseph sought a way to reduce the cost and danger of defending Tunis, then decided France should support Mysore against England in India to distract the British from North Africa. He outlined his plan and continued reading Berthier’s report on the General Staff Headquarters.

• Joseph calculated that maintaining the French forces in Tunis would cost more than 10 million livres a year and found no practical way to make Morocco or Russia help.
• Eman agreed that England habitually stirred up trouble, prompting Joseph to consider striking at British interests instead of focusing only on Tunis.
• Joseph studied a map and chose India, deciding to support Tipu Sultan and Mysore as the Third Anglo-Mysore War approached.
• Joseph reviewed Mysore’s history and concluded that French support and military advisers could help Tipu avoid the mistakes that led to his defeat.
• Joseph drafted his ideas during the carriage ride near Montpellier, then resumed reading Berthier’s report on recruiting soldiers and expanding military academies.

Joseph discovered Napoleon Bonaparte while reviewing commendations for officers who had suppressed the unrest, then summoned him and offered him a place in the Royal Guard Legion. Napoleon arrived at Joseph’s villa, where Joseph confirmed his identity and offered him promotion to captain and command of an artillery company, awaiting his answer.

• Joseph considered how to recruit experienced officers from the old army into the Royal Guard Legion.
• Joseph found Second Lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte’s commendation and file, which matched the historical Napoleon’s family and military background.
• Joseph sent for Napoleon and arranged for messengers to find him among troops bound for Tunis.
• Napoleon arrived at Joseph’s villa, and Joseph confirmed his identity by asking about his brothers and mother.
• Joseph praised Napoleon’s actions at Amne and offered him a captaincy and command of an artillery company in the Royal Guard Legion.