I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 199

The Filiki Eteria [a secret Greek organization aiming to overthrow Ottoman rule], the Greek independence movement, enjoyed strong support from all levels of Greek society.

Emboldened by this strong support and the encouragement from European powers, they launched a sudden uprising. Initially, it seemed they were succeeding.

They faced a brief setback from local Ottoman forces, but the Filiki Eteria eventually gained overwhelming local support.

Since Greeks had been renowned for their naval skills since ancient times, they began achieving unexpected victories in naval battles.

Equipping themselves with some military strength on each island, they established their own fleet and appointed admirals, solidifying the foundation of a proper army.

However, no matter how hard they fought, they were outnumbered and outmatched.

From the start, it was impossible for Greece alone to withstand the Ottoman Empire.

As the Ottoman army began pouring into Greece from the mainland in earnest, the Filiki Eteria suffered successive defeats and was pushed back.

The cities that had briefly regained their freedom fell back into Ottoman hands.

Many Filiki Eteria members, branded as rebels, were captured or killed, and the remaining leadership was driven back to the Pindus Mountains, which bisect central Greece.

Up to this point, the war for independence seemed destined to end in failure, as it always had before.

Yet, there was one crucial reason they didn’t surrender.

It was the presence of French and British forces, who had joined the war to support Greek independence.

Greece believed that as soon as the Anglo-French allied forces crushed Egypt, they would immediately turn their armies to rescue them.

However, contrary to Greece’s hopes, Britain and France seemed utterly unconcerned.

In fact, Britain was pleased that France showed no signs of moving.

Nelson, who had already sent so many artifacts back to his home country that he couldn’t send any more, was starting to wonder what the French were up to.

What treasures were they unearthing that they were wasting time instead of advancing?

He heard that French scholars were poking around not only the Nile but also the upper reaches of the Red Sea. Could there be treasures buried in the sea as well?

Perhaps they were the remains of the Egyptian soldiers mentioned in the Bible.

The Egyptian soldiers who chased Moses across the Red Sea, only to be swallowed by the sea when it closed again, becoming food for the fish.

If they were to discover such artifacts, his own collection would pale in comparison, no matter how many cultural assets he had stashed away.

Feeling threatened, Nelson visited the French encampment under a suitable pretext to confirm the rumors.

“Shouldn’t we be moving soon? If we delay any longer, the flame of Greek independence that we barely ignited may be extinguished again.”

“Indeed. We were just about to move as well. Fortunately, we’ve found almost everything we were looking for.”

“What you were looking for…”

He was giving answers so readily?

Was this an expression of confidence that they had already found everything they needed and no longer cared about him?

Honestly, he had expected them to make all sorts of excuses to keep him from entering, but it was strange that they were showing him everything inside.

Despite Nelson’s suspicious gaze, Napoleon pointed to the rear with a nonchalant expression.

“I have assurances from the Prime Minister. But I heard that the coastal cities have been almost completely devastated by the British forces…”

“It was an effort to prevent those barbarians from damaging the brilliant artifacts left by our ancestors. Wasn’t your country doing something similar here, to be honest?”

“I think there’s some misunderstanding, we…”

“Wooaaah! Shiiiiit! It’s really here! We found it!”

Before Napoleon could finish his sentence, a huge shout from afar drowned out his words.

He wondered if there had been an accident, but listening closely, it sounded more like a shout of joy than a scream.

Moreover, strangely enough, the shout was getting closer and closer.

“General! We finally found it! Ooooooh!”

“It was just as the Prime Minister said! It was really here!”

“This is a great discovery! A great, great discovery that will go down in history!”

Had the French finally gone crazy from the heat of Egypt?

People who looked like scholars rushed in, spitting as they shouted.

“A great discovery that will go down in history? Is it that significant?”

“Yes, it is. As soon as we return to France, we need to gather as many scholars fluent in Egyptian and Greek as possible and begin research!”

The French scholars, completely out of their minds, didn’t even glance at Nelson and kept chattering away.

What on earth did they find to cause such a commotion?

Warily, Nelson’s eyes widened with dismay and bewilderment as he saw the object being carried in from afar.

“What, are they making all this fuss over just one stone?”

It was almost a soliloquy, but the reaction it drew was enormous.

“What, *just* a stone? Pfft!”

“Typical Englishman. Their ignorance never changes.”

“Leave them be. What would muscle-brains who only think of treasures as shiny and glittering know?”

“Anyway, General, we will take this back to our home country as per the Prime Minister’s instructions.”

The scholars cast truly contemptuous glances as they went outside.

“Haha…muscle-brains, huh…”

He became an uncultured boor just for muttering to himself?

Napoleon chuckled and nodded slightly to Nelson, as if to say he was sorry.

“Don’t worry too much about it. People with ink in their heads often act like that.”

“…Is that stone really that important?”

“That’s what they say. Of course, the Prime Minister said so too, so I don’t doubt it.”

“…I see.”

The French Prime Minister wouldn’t have asked to bring such a stone without any basis.

He thought that the decorations he had discovered couldn’t be inferior to that one stone, but Nelson wasn’t completely ignorant of cultural artifacts either.

He only caught a glimpse of it from afar, but it seemed that something was densely engraved on the stone.

Depending on the importance of the content written there, it could be an object of sufficient value to make the French scholars make such a fuss.

If that were really the case, then all the cultural assets he had swept up, braving the local infamy, would be in vain…

Of course, even in the worst-case scenario, there was still a chance.

Since the war wasn’t over yet, all he had to do was achieve such an overwhelming victory that France would be erased from everyone’s memory.

“General, now that you’ve found everything you were looking for, we can now march into Greece, right?”

“I was just about to move the army again. I heard that the situation in Greece is as precarious as a candle in the wind.”

“Yes. Considering the situation in Greece, I think the best strategy we can take is to control the sea. If we sink all the Ottoman warships, the enemy forces that have landed in Greece will naturally be isolated and lose their will to fight, right? So it’s no exaggeration to say that the war will end there.”

“That makes sense, but to gain a favorable position in the post-war negotiations, we must inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy. If the enemy’s army that landed in Greece is annihilated, the Ottomans won’t even dare to refuse our offer.”

He was trying to deliver the decisive blow to end the war, but Napoleon wasn’t going to allow that so easily.

“No, General. There’s no reason for the army to go into Greece. If we just show the difference in naval power, the Ottomans will have no choice but to bow their heads. There’s no need to shed the blood of our precious soldiers…”

“Have you heard how many casualties our French army suffered fighting the Egyptian army this time? There’s a higher chance that less of our blood will be shed in the fight against the Ottomans.”

“That’s because the Egyptian Mamluks [a military caste that dominated Egypt] are just anachronistic people…”

The conversation continued for a long time, but no conclusion was reached.

“Prime Minister Christian himself is scheduled to come to Greece to negotiate for independence. So the French army must clear the way so that not a single enemy soldier remains on the path the Prime Minister takes.”

“That’s the same for us. The warships that Prime Minister Pitt will be on have already been arranged.”

In any case, they had to be the most noticeable in this war.

The two men, openly revealing their inner thoughts and arguing, eventually reached a similar conclusion as before.

“Then let’s just do our own thing.”

“That’s the best way.”

Britain would annihilate the Ottoman navy, and France would annihilate the enemy forces that landed in Greece.

History would tell who made the decisive contribution in this war.

※※※

Just one month after the French and British forces left Egypt and arrived in Greece.

Kwa kwa kwa kwang!

A thunderous noise echoed across the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese Peninsula in southern Greece.

“Show the power of the British Empire! Sink all those kebab bastards’ flimsy ships!”

“It is our British Empire that will lead this war to victory!”

Nelson, who was confident of victory even before the battle began, did not hesitate.

His ships had far more cannons per ship, and his warships were taller and sturdier than theirs.

The new battleships, which had been built with a huge amount of money to suppress the French naval buildup, were demonstrating their power to the fullest.

In the end, in a naval battle that lasted about 4 hours, the British forces suffered only about 400 casualties, but the Ottoman navy suffered almost complete annihilation.

With 80 ships sunk and over 5,000 casualties, the Ottomans could no longer continue the battle and retreated.

While a massacre was taking place at sea, the situation on land was not much different.

“French soldiers! We are the only ones who can bring the wind of freedom once again to this historic land where the flower of freedom bloomed for the first time! Sweep away all the Islamic oppressors!”

“Viva la France!”

“For freedom!”

The French army, which had already practiced combat against the Mamluks, was perfectly adapted to the new weapons.

The Ottomans, who encountered this army of slaughter without any information, were swept away without even putting up a proper fight.

The situation was completely reversed from when they had driven back the Filiki Eteria.

The Ottoman army disappeared from Greece like dust swept away by a broom.

It was a stark demonstration of how much the national power of the strongest countries in Europe and the Ottoman Empire had diverged, and how history would unfold in the future.

This amazing result immediately spread throughout Greece and the countries of Europe.

The independence of Greece was now almost certain.

The Greeks sang and rejoiced in joy, but there were those who could not laugh in the midst of this.

It was the Greek independence army, the Filiki Eteria, who had been pushed back to the Pindus Mountains.

The reason they couldn’t laugh was not because they hadn’t achieved independence with their own hands.

It was simply because the war ended too quickly as soon as the British and French arrived, and the news had not reached deep into the Pindus Mountains.

“Chief, we don’t have much food and supplies left.”

“…I see…”

“The Ottoman bastards aren’t chasing us this far, but we don’t know when they’ll come. If we stay here, we’ll only starve to death.”

“The time for choice has come.”

There were three main options for the independence army.

Wait for slow destruction here, surrender to the enemy, or throw away their lives and go out to fight.

Of course, if they went out to fight, they would all die.

But if they were going to surrender to the Ottomans, they wouldn’t have even mentioned the word independence in the first place.

Rather than starving to death here like wild animals, they would end their lives as human beings, without giving up their beliefs until the end.

“Anyone who wants to escape from here is free to leave. If you hide and take refuge, the British and French forces may arrive.”

“We can’t do that! Unless we show that our will is firm, why would Britain or France help us? We will fight to the end!”

Everyone in the Hetairia [another name for the Filiki Eteria] was determined with one heart and mind.

Yes. Now that everyone’s hearts were united like this, there was nothing to fear.

Even if they perished here, the noble will of the Filiki Eteria would be conveyed beyond Greece to the far reaches of Europe.

There was no reason to hesitate any longer.

“Everyone, take up your weapons! We will die in the future, but this heart will become the cornerstone of the new Greece that will be established! Our death is never in vain!”

“For the future!”

“For Greece!”

Now, only hundreds remained, but their spirit was not envious of the strength of an army of ten thousand.

With burning enthusiasm, the Hetairia descended the mountains and immediately advanced to the nearest city.

If they could win here and obtain supplies, they could continue the fight even a little longer, and if they lost…

“Chief. Thank you for everything so far.”

“You all have worked hard to follow me, who is lacking.”

“Still, if the last thing we see in our lives is the faces of our comrades, it’s not so bad. Now, let’s go burn our lives!”

Was it because they were facing the end?

Embarrassing words that they would never have said normally came out very easily.

The soldiers, having made their resolve, carefully approached the city and clenched the weapons in their hands.

But something was strange.

The defensive forces that should have been there were nowhere to be seen, and people were walking around decorating all sorts of things as if they were preparing for a festival.

An old man who approached the Hetairia, who had stiffened with weapons in hand, asked in a dialect full of local accent.

“What are you doing there?”

“Yes? No, well…we are trying to fight the Ottoman bastards with our lives…”

“Hey, don’t do that. No matter how much you hate the Ottoman bastards, it’s only you who will suffer if you keep chasing and killing the guys who have already run away. Just put that aside and enjoy this moment together.”

“…?”

The soldiers looked at each other with incomprehensible expressions at the answer that was out of focus.

“Excuse me, elder. That’s not it, we are the Filiki Eteria who rose up for the independence of Greece. This place may soon become a battlefield, so you should evacuate now, even if it’s late…”

It was a word of concern for the safety of the residents, but the old man stared at them as if they were lunatics.

Then he scratched his head and clicked his tongue.

“…How long has it been since the Ottomans lost? What are you talking about? Did you come out of some mountain valley?”

“…What did you say?”

The chief, who had stiffened in his place as if struck by lightning, carefully turned to look at the subordinates behind him.

The eyes of everyone, which had been shining with a solemn determination just a moment ago, were stained with an indescribable emotion.

All the famous words he had uttered until now flashed through the chief’s mind.

“Uh…when was that?”

At this moment, there was no joy in welcoming independence, no relief in saving his life.

“Hey, you people! How can you not know the glorious moment when our Greece became independent? It’s already been two weeks!”

“…”

“In, independence? Did we?”

The voices of all the independence fighters, who were slowly beginning to recognize the situation, flew like cannonballs and hit their ears.

I wish someone would turn back time.

His mouth, which had been standing blankly for a long time, finally opened.

“Lon…long live.”

“…?”

“Long live! Greece, in, independence, long live!”

“Wo, woah! Long live independence!”

“We did it!”

Anyway, independence was achieved.

I don’t know what we did, though.

End