The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 275 Toulon, Corsica and the Old Emperor

Liu Quanzhi and Fei Chun's indifferent attitude and their inexplicable reactions to Godoy's accusations left Godoy and Hood stunned for a long time.

Then Hood stood up and said:

"If the Ming Dynasty really does not want to interfere in French affairs, then please send back Louis Joseph, the crown prince of Louis XVI of France.

"We need the banner of His Royal Highness Louis Joseph to call on the French nobility to work together to restore the old order."

This time Liu Quanzhi waved his hand directly:
“The banner of restoring order is important, but what is more important is to be able to win the battle.

"If you can defeat the French rebel army, you are really capable of forcibly restoring the situation in France to the situation before the riots.

"We will send His Majesty Louis back and cooperate with you to accomplish all this.

“However, in our judgment, you do not have the ability to do so at present, and your army is no match for the French rebels.

“Handing over His Majesty Louis to you now would put him in danger.

“Now the Russians are busy dealing with Poland, and Prussia and Austria are also torn between Poland and France.

"Neither of your two countries have put forth enough strength to carry out a full-scale intervention.

“In the eyes of our Highness, your current state is just pure fun and will not have any good results.

"We can't possibly hand His Majesty Louis over to you.

"At least until all the countries in the entire European continent are fully focused on suppressing the riots in France.

"We, the Ming Dynasty, will naturally escort His Majesty Louis back and fight alongside you."

Hood and Godoy were both incredulous.

Godoy asked directly:
"Are you really kidding, Minister? France is certainly the strongest country on the European continent, but it absolutely has no ability to confront the European power of Germany.

"As for asking the whole of Europe to fight back, that is totally unnecessary."

Fei Chun waved his hand and said:
"Don't say any more, just forget it if you can't understand.

“Anyway, since you cannot meet the standards of our Highness, the Ming Dynasty will not participate in your actions.

“Da Ming also has its own things to do now.

"We understand each other's previous attitudes, so let's end today's meeting here."

Neither Godoy nor Hood could accept the reality and wanted to continue to explain and persuade Liu Quanzhi and the other man, but Liu Quanzhi and the other man did not give them any chance at all.

Godoy and Hood were asked to leave the reception room.

Outside the palace where they met, Godoy looked at Hood beside him:
"General Hood, why is the Ming Dynasty like this? Do the people of the Ming Dynasty really not care about their interests in France?"

Hood thought for a moment:
“The people of the Ming Dynasty…may not care who is in charge of the French order, nor what kind of social order France has.

"The Ming Dynasty may just be waiting for the situation in Europe to completely stabilize before dealing with the new ruler of France.

“The Ming Dynasty was indeed a civilian-bureaucratic court, so it did not care whether the French civilian rebellion that destroyed the aristocratic order would affect the stability of the Ming Dynasty.

“From this perspective, apart from the cooperation between Louis XVI and the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty really had no motivation to restore the old order for France.

"Or maybe the Ming Dynasty judged that the benefits of sending troops to force France to restore the old order could not offset the cost.

"The Ming Dynasty believes that France is now very powerful and that it will take the whole of Europe to confront it, so it does not want to participate."

Godoy found this logic unreasonable:

“Then intervention in France will be up to us Europeans.

"As long as we let the Ming people see that France is not as powerful as they think.

"We could defeat France easily.

"The inventor should be eager to come to us to participate in the action."

Hood thought for a moment and said:

"hope so."

Led by Britain and Spain, together with the nearby Kingdom of Sardinia, Naples and Sicily, these feudal states in the southern Mediterranean.

They gathered tens of thousands of troops and, at the invitation of the French royalists, landed and took control of Toulon and the surrounding lands.

Everything seemed to be going well, but the gap between reality and imagination soon became apparent.

The French revolutionary government forces won victory after victory in their military operations in the south, while the French royalist nobles and the coalition forces of Britain, Spain and other countries that supported them were defeated one after another.

In the end, a large-scale decisive battle broke out between the two sides in the port of Toulon.

The French artillery forces commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte played a significant role in this battle, destroying the offensive capabilities of the anti-French coalition led by the British.

The anti-French coalition forces discovered the French army's extraordinary fighting will and combat effectiveness.

After realizing that victory was hopeless, they could only withdraw from France under the cover of the navy, taking a group of high-ranking French royalists with them.

The French revolutionary government's troops entered Toulon and began to purge the local aristocracy.

All nobles who colluded with foreign forces were executed immediately.

Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted directly from captain to colonel due to his outstanding performance.

He was authorized to take full charge of a separate combat mission to attempt to invade Sardinia's territory and force it to withdraw from the war.

The tentative battle plan was to use Corsica as a springboard to occupy Sardinia, which belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Napoleon was overjoyed by this mission.

Napoleon felt that his chance to gain complete control of Corsica had come.

Napoleon took over a total of 4,000 troops under his command as quickly as possible and headed to Corsica to carry out his mission.

The fate of Napoleon and Corsica has changed compared to its original history.

According to the original history, Napoleon first participated in the operation to capture Sardinia as a captain.

After the failed mission to capture Sardinia, Napoleon returned to participate in the Siege of Toulon.

Now Napoleon first fought the Siege of Toulon and then returned to Corsica as the commander-in-chief of the operation.

However, the general situation on Corsica has not changed much.

At this time, the chairman of the Revolutionary Committee on Corsica, and the de facto local administrator, was Pascal Paoli.

Paoli was a national hero who led Corsica to independence from Genoa and established the Republic of Corsica. He enjoys a very high reputation on the island of Corsica.

France occupied Corsica after the Seven Years' War, and King Louis XV exiled Paoli.

After the outbreak of the French Revolution, Paulie initially accepted revolutionary ideas and was considered a French revolutionary by the revolutionary government.

Paoli was therefore invited and allowed to return to France and join the local French revolutionary government.

But as the revolution progressed, Paoli began to become alienated from the French revolutionary government.

He believed that the revolutionary government was too cruel and bloody, and that the current revolutionary ideas were becoming increasingly extreme.

Paoli began to try his best to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas in Corsica.

Napoleon was a supporter of revolutionary ideas and was happy to increase his influence by spreading revolutionary ideas.

As the local tyrant in Corsica, the Bonaparte family was a thorn in Paoli's side.

When Napoleon returned to Corsica with his army and asked Paoli to cooperate with the offensive against Sardinia, the conflict between the two sides broke out directly.

Napoleon asked Paoli to mobilize more troops to accompany him to attack and control Sardinia.

Napoleon required at least 4,000 troops, but Paoli pretended to obey and only organized an additional 2,000 troops for Napoleon. In the original history, Napoleon was not the main commander. Although he performed his mission well, he failed in the end.

This time, Napoleon served as the commander-in-chief and led his army to successfully defeat the Sardinian defenders, about a thousand people.

After winning the first foreign offensive war, Napoleon's self-confidence swelled again.

In order to gain complete control of Corsica, Napoleon arranged for his brother, Lucien Bonaparte, to return to Toulon to complain about Paoli's crimes to the local revolutionary committee.

It is also true that Poly pretended to obey but actually disobeyed, but the accusation from the victor is more effective.

So the revolutionary committee of Toulon asked Paulie to come in person to explain why he had not fulfilled his duties.

Poly didn't dare to accept questioning at this time.

Because Paulie believed that the revolutionary government at that time was too extreme and might simply drag people out and behead them just because of a quarrel in a meeting.

Napoleon, who had achieved a great victory, would certainly use the power of his family to completely exclude himself from Corsica and thus completely control Corsica.

Paoli then announced on the island that the revolutionary government wanted to execute him and punish the people of Corsica.

The entire island of Corsica quickly fell into chaos.

Paulie decided to go all out and directly ordered the arrest of Napoleon's family and key members of the Bonaparte family.

However, the Bonaparte family was also the main family on the island. They received the news in advance through their own channels and immediately left Corsica under the escort of Napoleon's army.

Napoleon commanded his army to defeat the militia attack organized by Paoli.

However, they were unable to suppress the popular uprising on the entire island and had to withdraw from Corsica.

Although Napoleon himself and his family escaped danger of death, he was shocked and realized one thing thoroughly.

Although Corsica is his hometown, the people of Corsica do not support him.

They would rather follow Poly than themselves.

Napoleon's sense of belonging to Corsica finally began to weaken, and he even began to develop a latent resistance.

When Napoleon returned to Toulon, he received a very warm welcome.

The Revolutionary Committee first rewarded Napoleon for his combat achievements in Sardinia and directly promoted Napoleon's military rank to brigadier general.

At only 24 years old, Napoleon became the youngest brigadier general in France.

It also compensated Napoleon's family for their losses in the Corsica turmoil and allocated them land for farming and living.

The French soldiers who followed him to victory, as well as the soldiers and officers stationed in Toulon, showed their heartfelt admiration and support for Napoleon.

Napoleon began to vaguely feel that compared to the indifferent Corsicans, the French were more like his own people.

Napoleon put aside his grudges and began to lead the French army to kill people everywhere.

Paulie was completely panicked.

He knew that Corsica was too weak. Once France resolved the interference of major powers and mobilized more troops, the Corsica militia would definitely be suppressed.

The result could be being sent to the guillotine.

Paulie immediately contacted other countries, including Britain, Spain and Ming Dynasty.

Paulie said that Corsica could become a free state of the Ming Dynasty, or become part of Britain or Spain, as long as the corresponding country could protect Corsica.

Ming officials had little interest in this.

Zhu Jianxuan has also left North Africa.

Zhu Jianxuan originally planned to stay in North America for a period of time to deal with the war on the European continent.

However, soon after the Battle of Toulon began, Zhu Jianxuan received news from the capital of the Ming Dynasty - the Ming Emperor was seriously ill.

The old emperor was already seventy-five years old, an age where he could die at any time, so this kind of thing was not surprising at all.

As the crown prince, Zhu Jianxuan did not dare to stay for even a moment and immediately set off by boat back to Shuntian Prefecture.

At this time, the double-track Suez Canal has been fully connected.

Ships no longer need to avoid each other and can cross the river directly on fixed one-way routes, which greatly improves navigation efficiency again.

After the canal was completed, the engineering team did not idle immediately, but began to continue working at both ends of the canal.

Build larger-scale ship repair, shipbuilding and supply centers.

In July of the 47th year of Xianning in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jianxuan arrived in Shuntian Prefecture exhausted.

Zhu Jianxuan discovered that there were no white flags hanging in the city or the palace, obviously the old emperor was still there.

Zhu Jianxuan breathed a sigh of relief and without bothering to find out other things, he went directly to the West Garden where the old emperor lived.

The queen also lived directly in the old emperor's palace, and personally supervised the servants to serve the old emperor every day.

After Zhu Jianxuan entered the room, the queen, in a depressed mood, took her son's hand, came to the bedside and told her son about the old emperor's condition.

The old emperor is now unable to move most of his body and can only lie in bed and rely on others to take care of his daily life.

I can no longer open my eyes completely, I can’t see clearly, and my speech is intermittent.

Zhu Jianxuan sat on the edge of the bed, grabbed his father's hand, and called him "Father" several times.

When the old emperor heard Zhu Jianxuan's voice, he seemed to sober up a little, and muttered intermittently and vaguely:

"Xuan'er... you're back... it's good that you're back... everything will be fine now that you're back..."

"Dad is really dying. I feel relieved that Daming has you."

Zhu Jianxuan felt that the old emperor might have suffered a cerebral thrombosis, which is now basically an incurable disease.

Although he still has memories of his past life, this life is the one he has seen grow up in.

It was because of his care and preference that I was able to successfully realize my ideas and plans.

Seeing that his father was dying, Zhu Jianxuan couldn't help but burst into tears:

"Father, you will live a long life..."

The old emperor could barely hear the voice:

"I am still alive today thanks to you and the medicines you invented. Otherwise, your brother and I would have died long ago.

"Just do it... I'm relieved. I'm not worried about anything else. I just hope you don't make things difficult for your elder brother..."

Zhu Jianxuan immediately agreed:

"Big brother has taken care of me since I was young. I will never embarrass you, and there is no need for me to embarrass you."

The old emperor nodded slightly and closed his eyes.

The old emperor was already terminally ill and was just holding on with all his might, waiting for Zhu Jianxuan to come back.

Meet him one last time, say a few last words to ensure the smooth succession of the throne.

Now that his last wish had been fulfilled, Old Imperial City relaxed his spirit, and his entire consciousness quickly became blurred.

Zhu Jianxuan held his father's hand and sat by his bed for an hour. When he felt his hand slowly getting cold, he knew that he had passed away silently.

Zhu Jianxuan felt empty inside and turned to look at the imperial physician waiting beside him.

The imperial physician immediately stepped forward, felt the old emperor's pulse and breathing, and then carefully reported to the empress and the crown prince:

"Your Majesty has passed away..."

(End of this chapter)